Rachel Atherton: Cycling’s unsung hero

December 11, 2024

25 year old Rachel Atherton is an unsung hero. As a two-time world champion in downhill mountain biking you might assume she would have a higher profile, but as with many non-Olympic stars, male or female, she is famous within the sport, but largely invisible in the mainstream.

But, with a gold medal from the 2013 World Championships hanging around her neck, that may all be about to change.

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In what she describes as the best season of her career, Rachel has won both the World Championships and the overall World Cup title. This comes five years after she first won the world title but the intervening years have seen her struggle badly with injury.

In 2008, the year of the Beijing Olympics, her first world title was largely overlooked. So what’s different this time?

“Things have changed so much since then. Now, with social media, you can document everything yourself – it’s so much easier to get the news out there,” she tells Sportsister.

“This time people have noticed and we’ve had a lot of coverage – it’s been great. Normally mountain biking gets so little press, and that’s really frustrating, especially when there are so many Brits at the top of the game. [Rachel’s Brothers Dan and Gee are also successful riders].

“But we’ve always found that when you do get to work with people from the mainstream media they love it – it’s a cool sport, and most people watching for the first time find it exciting and fresh.”

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At the moment, downhill has a huge cult following, with around 180,000 people watching live streaming of the World Cup series via the Red Bull channel. The sport clearly already has a captive audience, so imagine how much bigger that fan-base would be if the sport were broadcast on mainstream media or included in the Olympics.

But is that what the sport needs? Many riders are happy for downhill mountain biking to remain independent, fearing that inclusion in the Olympics could affect its unique appeal. Rachel is undecided, but clearly doesn’t agree with suggestions that it is not a great spectator sport.

“People always say the reason downhill isn’t in the Olympics is because it’s not very spectator friendly because there’s a limit to the places you can hold a downhill race. But you know, I think there are ways round it. Cross country (an Olympic discipline) isn’t awesome to watch, and the tracks always seem to be a little bit tame to me.”

The UK ’s governing body, British Cycling, has of course benefited from the platform of the Beijing and London Olympics. These Games catapulted its riders to stardom, which in turn has elevated cycling across the board. For Rachel though, the set-up is different because despite racing in a GB jersey at the World Championships, the rest of the season she races for her professional team – GT Factory Racing.

“We’re happy with the situation, it’s all a little bit smoother like this. But we’re up in Manchester (home of British Cycling) quite a lot and the facility is available to us whenever we need to use it..”

So could Rachel ever be tempted to switch disciplines and chase track glory and an Olympic medal? “It depends how long I stay in downhill but I would definitely like to give the track another go, do some testing and see how it goes,” says Atherton, who took up BMX racing aged just eight before moving on to mountain bikes at the age of 11.

“When I was a junior rider we used to go for biannual testing and British Cycling were keen for Gee (Rachel’s brother) and me to join the squad, but back then we preferred to stick to mountain biking.”

Clearly minor details like the steep track banking and riding a bike with no brakes are not going to faze Rachel. But for now she is sticking with mountain biking, and it’s clear she has a huge passion for the sport.

“The thing I love most about downhill is how it all comes down to you,” she says. “As soon as the start beep goes, it’s you and whatever you put down. You have to be one hundred per cent on it for five minutes.

“You have to be accurate, you have to be exactly on the line, as powerfully and physically and skilfully as you can.”

To read our full exclusive interview with Rachel click here and simply download our October digi mag.

Danielle Sellwood, Sportsister
The Women’s Sports Magazine

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Rachel Atherton: Cycling’s unsung hero

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