Team USA Mixed Relay H1-5 Snags Bronze; Jill Walsh Earns Third in Road Race

Alicia Dana, Ryan Pinney and Alfredo de los Santos celebrate a bronze medal at the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020. (Photo: Casey Gibson/USOPC)

TOKYO - On the third day of road racing from Fuji International Speedway, Team USA landed atop the podium twice. A third-place finish in the mixed team relay H1-5 and a bronze medal performance from Jill Walsh (Syracuse, New York) in the WT1-2 gave the Americans their seventh and eighth medals of the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

With relay performances from Ryan Pinney (Phoenix, Arizona), Alicia Dana (Putney, Vermont) and Alfredo de los Santos (Hopewell Junction, New York), the trio clocked in at 53:11 in a close battle that saw France (53:03) place second and Italy (52:32) take the gold.

Jill Walsh won a bronze medal in the WT1-2 road race after posting a time of 1:05:48 while competing in heavy rain and fog that descended on the circuit. The 58-year-old cyclist collected her third career Paralympic medal which features a pair of silver medals from Rio 2016 (road race T2, road time trial T2). Walsh also placed fourth in the women's T1-2 time trial on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at the Tokyo Games.

Pinney and Santos both earned their first career Paralympic medals and Dana, a three-time Paralympian, collected her third career medal and second in Tokyo. Will Groulx (Portland, Oregon) was originally slated to race the mixed relay but had to pull out due to a crash on the first day of competition.

Monica Sereda (St. Petersburg, Florida) rode to a fourth-place finish (1:07:32) in WT1-2 and Aaron Keith (Woodinville, Washington) finished the MC1 in 22nd place (2:26:00)

Road cycling concludes Friday, Sept. 3 from Fuji International Speedway.

QUOTES

Alicia Dana
These guys are amazing. I really feel so honored to be part of this team. They make me faster and stronger. I want to do well for these guys. We’re missing our teammate Will Groulx, and this race was in large part dedicated to him. We miss him, and we wish him well. He is the guy who is always there for everyone all the time. He had some rough luck in the time trial, and his energy and spirit really spurred us.

Ryan Pinney
The honor is mine. I’m with Alicia Dana. She’s one of the legends in Para-cycling. I am emotional – this is my first Games and my first medal. Just thinking about the journey that my family and I have come on has been special. I’d like to say I did this for my family. They’ve sacrificed so much for me to be here. I give all the glory to God.”

Alfredo de los Santos
This medal is not just for us. It’s for the country. It’s for the staff, the coaches, the community, the family. There’s no way we could do this by ourselves.There’s no way you can do this by yourself. You need a whole country to get to this level.

FULL RESULTS

Check out the results from the Paralympic Games Tokyo 2020.

WATCH LIVE

Tune into NBCSN, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC App for coverage of Para-cycling at the Paralympic Games.

SOCIAL MEDIA

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Please contact Cady Lowery (cady.lowery@usopc.org) for photo and footage requests.