Holmgren, Jackson: Pan Am Games Gold

 

Jenn Jackson takes gold in the Women's Cross Country. 2023 Pan Am Games Santiago, Chile.

Gunnar Holmgren has a rich Canadian mountain biking family: mother Lisa was an elite race, father Rob is a coach, sister Isabella is 2023 XCO and XC junior world champion and her twin sister Ava also races. Gunnar is in his strongest World Cup season, ranked 34th in the world with several top-15 finishes in XCC, which consists of a 1 to 1.5-km circuit course. He was also second at the Pan Am Continental Championships in the XCO and third in the XCC.

The XCO is for cross-country Olympics and an off-road mountain bike race format held over undulating, mainly dirt-based circuits riders complete several times.

"My goal is to go to the Olympics and bring home a medal for Canada."

-Gunnar Holmgren. 24-year-old from Orilla, ON.

Jenn Jackson (28-year-old from Barrie, ON - 2021, 2023 Canadian cross-country champion) won her first Pan Am gold in as many tries just over an hour after Holmgren's win. 

"It feels like a perfect day. There's just that little bit of motivation seeing one of your friends, someone you grew up riding with achieve the best result they could here... It just made me believe it's my turn. I just got to the front set my pace and just tried to have a really calm ride... It was perfect."

-Jenn Jackson

Gunnar Holmgren takes gold