How 'Dan from Nam' became cycling's Rio Olympic star

Representing the tiny African nation of Namibia - with a population of just two million - Dan Craven has embodied the Olympic Games with his positivity and love of country.

 

When the pro cycling scene moves on to its next events, even before this season concludes in just of couple of months time; only a few facts will be recalled clearly about the road events at the Rio Olympics.

We'll remember who the champions are and who won the medals.

And we'll remember the names of a couple of top names who crashed out when they appeared to have one foot on the podium.

But we'll also remember Dan Craven. Perhaps more than any other rider he has embodied the Olympic spirit so far in the cycling events in Rio.

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Craven is far from your identikit pro rider obsessed with his training and results and talking about little else.

He's from the African nation of Namibia and he's stayed classy and waved his nation's flag proudly this last week.

Known as 'Dan from Nam', his contribution to his country's sporting history has not been in the shape of any shiny medal.

But he's won a huge number of fans and brought a huge volume of positive attention to Nambia, here's 11 reasons why he's been our favourite Olympian so far:

 

1 He rode the Olympic TT with no aero kit

That's right, Craven did not have a TT bike or any other aero kit despite the importance of aero bikes, helmets, clothing and so on in the modern era.

A spot in the TT opened up late for Namibia and when he was asked to do it he felt he couldn't turn the down the Olympics or his country despite only having his regular road racing bike and kit.

 

2 He speaks about his country and his people like this....

Tempted to decline the ride in the TT because he had not prepared for it at all and had not kit, Craven decided to ride and explained his decision, in a wonderful interview with Caley Fritz on Velo News which you can read by following this link.

“When I was a kid growing up in Namibia, watching Namibians in the Olympics was like, ‘Wow, we can be there. Okay, yeah, I’m going to come last, but there are going to be some Namibians at home that go, ‘But we can be there; it’s possible.’

“With a country that has got few internationally known role models, it’s hard to know that you can do it. When I was growing up, [track and field Olympic medalist] Frankie Fredericks was the only worldwide famous Namibian. He was so important to me because it told me I could. If it wasn’t for him, it would just be like, ‘Oh, Namibians can’t.’

“If someone thinks I’m going to be embarrassed here, today, they have no idea what I’ve been through. They should have seen me when I had chronic fatigue syndrome and couldn’t even move up from last position in the Lincoln GP in 2013.

“You should know what salary I’ve ridden for in the past. This isn’t embarrassing, that was embarrassing.”

 

3 He live-Tweeted his Olympic road race

Well, he didn't Tweet it at all, it was his partner. But the decision by Craven to hand over his phone and agree that his extremely sharp and witty better half would live-Tweet Saturday's road race as if he were sending out the dispatches from the middle of the bunch was a master stroke.

From that point he could do no wrong really. And when the late place in the TT opened up, he consulted fans on Twitter, with everyone telling him to go for it.

 

4 He briefly led the TT (for Namibia!)

He was first rider off in the TT today and so when he finished his time was the fastest, meaning he was sent to the hot seat to fill it as the virtual leader does.

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They had thrones in London four years ago for the medal places hot seats but this time around they just cobble together a few plastic sun loungers from Woodies.

Craven - now aged 33 years and at his second Olympics - got a great kick out of this. He made sure he got a photo and stuck it up on Twitter, once again demonstrating his very appealing lack of ego.

 

5 He's a class act on the bike

For a brief moment at the start of Saturday's men's race in Rio, Craven looked like a really fit rider out for a spin about to be caught and overtaken by the pros.

But don't let that fool you - he only looked a bit different because of his beard, and mainly because of the classic look black shorts he was wearing.

He's been a pro for nine years. You don't get to be on unless you're an exceptional talent and you certainly don't hold your place for as long as he has without producing the goods.

He even rode for the guts of two seasons with Europcar, one of the biggest pro teams in the world.

He's won plenty of races and been a medalist in the African road race championships twice. He's even won a stage on the Rás - the opening leg back in 2010 when he went on to finish 3rd overall riding for Rapha.

 

6 He's secretly Santa's apprentice

 

7 He survived this assassination bid by Team Chile

 

8 Fans want to look like him (and he replies to them)

 

9 He loves dipping rusks into coffee

 

10 When somebody marked his love of the rusk....

When somebody marked his love of the baby rusk by superimposing his bearded mallet onto a baby's body, he put it into his Facebook account as his profile picture.

 

11 He doesn't do bitching

From the moment he arrived in Brazil Craven has thrown himself into it, debunking the bad press whenever he can and bigging up his country.

 

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