PARK CITY, Utah – From Pinecone to Crest to Armstrong, Haley Batten still remembers all of her favorite hiking trails in Park City.

“I could just take my bike after school, go to those mountains and ride forever and ever, and I felt so independent and strong and capable,” she said. “When I started racing, it was really just me and the guys, like on so many sidelines, it was me and just a couple of guys. I was lucky because my family always taught me that I belonged there, and I never questioned that.”

Her mentors and coaches were not surprised when she made it to the Olympics and won a silver medal this summer, giving her the best mountain biking finish ever for the U.S. team.

“She rode uphill and chatted nonstop,” said Julie Minahan, the young rider program director. “She was just in love with the sport and was totally committed from the first day she started.”

“As a ninth-grader, she had her own training schedule, but still came to all the practices and rode with some of our slowest riders,” added Pete Stoughton, director and head coach of the Park City High School mountain bike team.

Although Batten no longer lives in Park City, Utah will always be her home, she says.

“It’s my home,” Batten said. “All of my people have helped make this possible, so I want to give back to this community.”

The Olympian returned to Park City before leaving for Paris and rode with some young girls from her old high school team.

“That’s part of her legacy: she’s helping to get more young girls interested in the sport,” Stoughton said.

Batten hopes her success can inspire change.

“I just hope that more places and more people switch to cycling and that the infrastructure is created not just for bike lanes but for bike paths and safe places where people can cycle and commute to school,” she said.

Paris is not the end of the road.

“The next one is mine,” Batten said. “I’m going for gold in LA.”