{"id":45821,"date":"2021-07-10T05:06:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-10T11:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sofia-gomez-villafane-gives-fort-lewis-college-another-olympian\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T03:27:35","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:27:35","slug":"sofia-gomez-villafane-gives-fort-lewis-college-another-olympian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/sofia-gomez-villafane-gives-fort-lewis-college-another-olympian\/","title":{"rendered":"Sofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e gives Fort Lewis College another Olympian"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CourtesySofia
CourtesySofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e, a 2016 graduate of Fort Lewis College, will represent Argentina in the women's cross-country mountain bike race at the Tokyo Olympics this month. She is the first woman from her country to qualify in 17 years.<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Sofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e was never set on becoming an elite mountain biker at a young age growing up in Esquel in the Patagonia region of Aregentina.<\/p>\n

Her family moved to Los Gatos, California, when she was 12, and she started riding a mountain bike in a high school league at the age of 15.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t until her senior year at Fort Lewis College in Durango where she fully dedicated herself to the sport. Now, she is going to the Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo to represent her native country in the women\u2019s cross-country mountain bike race.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is nothing I ever thought was possible,\u201d she said this week while training for the Olympics in her new home of Heber City, Utah. \u201cBut each year, I have gotten stronger, and now here we are, going to the Olympics post pandemic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Going into the new Olympic cycle, Argentina was ranked outside of the International Cycling Union nation\u2019s rankings for earning a spot in the Olympics. Three riders, including Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e, set out to chase UCI points to earn one spot in Tokyo.<\/p>\n

It didn\u2019t come without some hard work and drama, as one rider, Paula Quir\u00f3s, would test positive for EPO doping at the start of 2020 and was suspended. Unsure if all of her previous earned points would go away or not, Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e thought there was a chance the nation would fall further in the rankings.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe got suspended and a three-year ban, and that was a blow,\u201d Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e said. \u201cWe just didn\u2019t know how long she had maybe been racing dirty. We hoped it was just that one time and that all of her previous points weren\u2019t illegally earned. Luckily, her test came back from a point where we were able to keep her previous points.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College alumna Sofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e has dedicated four years toward racing for a spot at the Olympics, and she completed the mission. (File courtesy of Kenny Wehn)<\/span>Courtesy of Kenny Wehn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

With a second-place finish at this year\u2019s Pan-American Continental Mountain Bike Championships, the 27-year-old Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e was in strong position to earn selection from her federation for the one Olympic spot allotted to the nation once it had enough qualifying points to send a rider.<\/p>\n

And after a couple of finishes ahead of her closest competitor, Agustina Apaza, within Argentina at the early-season World Cups in Europe, selection was guaranteed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is the first time in 17 years Argentina has had a woman represented at the mountain bike Olympics,\u201d Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e said. \u201cThis year, we also have no male there, so it is just me. I definitely have a bit of weight on my shoulders representing a whole country.<\/p>\n

\u201cAgustina is a close friend, and he had been trying to make the Olympics her entire life. She\u2019s in her early 40s now. The whole process, we knew we would be happy no matter which one of us got the spot. I wouldn\u2019t be here without her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e said she never visited Durango before she enrolled at Fort Lewis. The 2016 graduate researched Durango online and thought it had a similar feel to her Patagonia upbringing.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get out of California and all the traffic,\u201d she said. \u201cI wanted to be in the mountains. I saw Fort Lewis had a good mountain bike program, and the pictures were pretty. I said, \u2018That will be just fine,\u2019 and decided to go to college there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e got involved with the FLC cycling program, but her primary focus was on her studies in exercise science and business administration. She also had a job, as she wanted to become financially independent.<\/p>\n

Her senior year, she fully committed to bike racing and enlisted the coaching help of Durango\u2019s Carmen Small, a longtime professional road cyclist. Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e finished her FLC cycling career with three collegiate mountain bike overall championships and a cyclo-cross national title as a senior.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatching Sofia grow has been better than any victory I ever had as an athlete,\u201d Small said. The relationship between a coach and an athlete is always special. I have also learned a lot from Sofia in the past five years and won\u2019t forget the growth we had as a team.\u201c<\/p>\n

After six months of working with Small, the two decided to keep working together and pursue the Olympics.<\/p>\n

\"Kate
Kate Courtney, Annika Langvad and Sofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e rode at the front of the UCI women\u2019s cross-country mountain bike race at the 2019 Sea Otter Classic in California. Langvad went on to win. Courtney was third and Villafa\u00f1e, an FLC alumna, fourth. (File courtesy of Kenny Wehn)<\/span>Courtesy of Kenny Wehn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cWhen I first started working with Carmen, she was the one who had the idea of turning me from a collegiate racer into an Olympian by 2020,\u201d Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e said. \u201cI thought she was crazy. But I decided to dedicate four years to it because I wasn\u2019t sure yet what I wanted to do with my life yet in terms of a career.\u201d<\/p>\n

The partner of fellow pro mountain biker Keegan Swenson, the two both had Olympic dreams for 2020. But it was Durango\u2019s Christopher Blevins who would earn selection ahead of Swenson for the one men\u2019s spot from USA Cycling.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of stayed separate about the whole thing these last few years,\u201d Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e. \u201cObviously, I would love for him and I to be together at the Games. Unfortunately, that was not able to happen. He\u2019s such a robot in a way. As soon as he wasn\u2019t going to the Olympics, he switched his focus immediately to nationals and the Leadville 100 and Breck Epic, all these longer distance events where he shines. We celebrated my achievement of going and talked about his disappointment of not going. But like he said, Chris is going to go and have a good race, make the country proud, and he was happy to contribute to Chris\u2019 ability to qualify.\u201d<\/p>\n

Swenson was happy to see Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e earn her place after all the hard work.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt all came together for her,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was touch and go at times with the points system and all of that, but she got her points and put together the races she needed to. I am proud and glad it all came together for her in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though Swenson won\u2019t be there, Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e will have plenty of supporters to lean on in Tokyo, from the three American women qualified for the race to Durango\u2019s Blevins.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just a little high school kid when she was tearing it up at Fort Lewis, so I didn\u2019t get to know her very well when she was here,\u201d Blevins said. \u201cBut she is half American, and we will definitely be sharing lines with her and wanting to help her succeed in Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e will have to start from the back of the race at the Olympics because of the nation\u2019s ranking. But she is eager to show her strength as the 42nd-ranked rider in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cI enjoy being on the bike and racing. It comes from my natural love of the outdoors,\u201d she said. \u201cWhether it is a good day or a bad day for my mood or legs, if it is raining or if it is brutally hot like it is going to be in Tokyo, I enjoy the process of showing up every day, doing my best and seeing where my body can take me.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\"Fort
Fort Lewis College cyclist Sofia Gomez-Villafa\u00f1e won a cyclo-cross national title and three mountain bike omnium championships during her time as a Skyhawk. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

represent Argentina in mountain bike race<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45822,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[657,132,977,346,2505],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-45821","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cycling","tag-fort-lewis-college","tag-mountain-biking","tag-sports","tag-summer-olympics"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45821","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45821"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45821\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":86647,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45821\/revisions\/86647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45821"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45821"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45821"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=45821"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}