Don’t misunderstand: Adam Craig was happy to fulfill a career goal by making the U.S. Olympic team.

But the Bend, Ore., mountain bike racer has bigger goals.

“Being an Olympian is a huge honor,” Craig said. “It’s a pretty good feather to have in your cap. To be a medalist would be better.”

No U.S. rider has medaled since mountain biking became an Olympic sport in 1996, and Craig won’t be favored when competition gets under way Aug. 23 at Laoshan Mountain Bike Course.

But don’t count him out. His coach isn’t.

“I think Adam has a shot at a top-five position,” said Bart Bowen, who owns the Rebound Sports Performance Lab in Bend and coaches several elite riders. “If he has his best day this season, he could be on the podium for the medal ceremony.”

The course is man-made. When Craig got a first look at it last year, it wasn’t particularly challenging.

Supposedly, it’s been tweaked to ratchet up the degree of difficulty. The tougher it rides and the more sharp, steep climbs there are, the better Craig’s chances.

“A lot of the courses now are really toned down, and it’s more about racing than your skill level,” Bowen said. “That doesn’t always play into Adam’s favor very well. If you get him on a true mountain bike course that is very technical, he tends to excel.”

Craig, 26, recently won his second consecutive U.S. cross country championship on a hilly course at the Mount Snow Resort in West Dover, Vt., with his rocketlike descents.

“He’s really a good athlete,” Bowen said. “People come to cycling for a lot of different reasons. Some aren’t that athletic. They just have the lungs and can ride a bike. Adam is athletic, and that really helps him on a mountain bike. He’s always been known as a great descender.”

It came naturally. As a 4-year-old, Craig was riding in the woods near his childhood hometown of Exeter, Maine, a town of fewer than 1,000. By 13, he was racing.

In 2002, he visited friends in Bend, liked what he saw and stayed.

“The weather is pretty darn decent in the winter for training,” he said. “There are good trails, a good crew to ride with and a bunch of other recreational activities.”

When not on his bike, Craig might be backcountry skiing, navigating a set of rapids in his kayak or riding shotgun in a rally car race with his friend, fellow mountain biker Carl Decker, behind the wheel.

“Carl is the one with the car, so he gets to drive,” Craig said. “I’m the navigator. I point which way to go.

“It’s actually a lot of the same stuff as mountain biking – reading the terrain, keeping your game face on, and doing it with a pretty similar group of people. It’s a pretty complementary pastime.”

Bowen said if Craig wasn’t making a living by racing mountain bikes, he might be competing in a kayak.

“He’s one of the best kayakers around,” Bowen said.

But the kayak has stayed dry lately. Craig has been uncharacteristically single-minded. It’s an Olympic year.

“I’ve got a moratorium going on the hobbies,” he said.

Craig and Bowen have tried to manage his training and racing schedule so Craig peaks for the Olympics. It was tricky, because he still had to ride well enough to make the team.

Todd Wells earned the U.S. team’s automatic mountain bike selection, based on the results of this season’s World Cup races.

Craig’s cumulative results were almost as good, and he was an obvious discretionary pick. In Beijing he will see many familiar faces from the World Cup circuit, although the field will be streamlined.

“The average World Cup race has 250 guys,” Craig said. “This is limited to 50. It’s basically the cream of the crop, which arguably could make it an easier race.”

There will be less congestion and more open space, which could be a plus for Craig.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “It will be awesome to go over there, try to ride fast and have a good time.”

That will be good.

To be a medalist would be better.