Rachel Atherton

Rachel Atherton
	Rachel Atherton in August 2008
Personal information
Full name	Rachel Laura Atherton
Nickname	Waynehead
Born	6 December 1987 (age 37); Salisbury, England, United Kingdom
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	65 kg (143 lb)
Team information
Current team	Atherton Racing
Discipline	BMX & MTB
Role	Rider
Rider type	DH
Professional teams
2007–2011	Animal Commençal
2011–2015	GT
2015–2018	Trek Factory Racing
2018–	Atherton Bikes
Major wins
	DH World Champion (x5); DH World Cup (x6 overall, 40 rounds); DH European Champion; DH National Champion (x6); DH Junior World Champion; DH Junior European Champion
Medal record
Women's mountain bike racing
Representing Great Britain
World Championships

Rachel Laura Atherton (born 6 December 1987) is a British professional downhill mountain bike racer, and is a multiple time UCI World Champion.

Atherton began riding BMX at the age of 8 and mountain biking at the age of 11.^[1] She was both Sunday Times' Sportswoman of the Year^[2] and BBC Midlands Junior Sportswoman of the Year^[3] in 2005, and then BBC Midlands Sportswoman of the Year in 2008.^[4] In October 2015, a video of Atherton overtaking 91 competitors in five minutes during a race went viral.^[5]

Career

For 5 years from 2007, Atherton was part of the Animal Commençal race team along with brothers Dan Atherton and Gee Atherton. In 2012, Atherton, along with her brothers Dan, Gee and Marc Beaumont, signed with GT Bicycles. In 2015, Atherton and her brothers signed with Trek Bicycle Corporation to race for Trek Atherton Racing.^[6]

In June 2008 Atherton became the first British woman to win the Elite UCI Downhill World Championship, defeating second placed Sabrina Jonnier by 11.99 seconds in the final.^[7]

Atherton was involved in a collision with a pickup truck whilst on a time trial training ride with her brothers Dan and Gee in Santa Cruz, California, on 18 January 2009.^[8] She sustained a dislocated shoulder which, after later needing a nerve graft,^[9] ruled her out of the 2009 racing season, including the September World Championships in Canberra.^[10]

In September 2012, Atherton took the final World Cup round on a diverse and testing Norwegian track and clinched the overall title, despite missing the opening race of the season. The Norwegian race was the final round of a seven-round series in which Atherton claimed a win in 5 of the 6 events she raced.

In June 2016, Atherton became the first woman to win 10 consecutive rounds of the World Cup, surpassing the record previously held by Anne-Caroline Chausson.^[11] In September that same year, she also achieved the unprecedented feat of winning every round in a World Cup season.^[12]

In 2019, Atherton suffered an injury to her Achilles tendon during a practice session, necessitating a prolonged period of recovery that sidelined her for the entirety of the 2020 season opener.^[13]

In 2023, Atherton made a comeback to competitive riding at the UCI Downhill World Cup in Lenzerheide, clinching the first-place victory.^[14]

Personal life

Atherton keeps the rainbow jerseys she won for being world champion in a birdcage, so that she can "take them out, touch them and remember those races.".^[15]

Atherton gave birth to a daughter on 4 August 2021.^[16]