Britain's most successful female mountain biker says she owes her career to her two brothers, as growing up around boys meant she never thought sport “wasn’t for girls”.
Rachel Atherton, the four-time downhill world champion, learned to BMX aged eight and mountain bike aged 11. She was introduced to the sports by Dan, now 36, and George “Gee”, 33, who also became professional cyclists.
The 30-year-old said she looked up to her brothers and “wanted to be just like them”, adding: “They got me into biking. I never felt sport wasn’t for girls. They were my influence.
“I wanted to do whatever they were doing. I only realised quite late there was a difference between boys and girls and typically girls ‘weren’t supposed’ to do sport. At high school there was the ‘you are a girl, you cannot ride bikes’. But by then I was determined to take it to the next level. I feel really lucky I grew up around boys and never thought sport couldn’t be for me. A lot of girls don’t have that. That’s a really sad thing.”
Atherton, who grew up in Devon and is based in Wales, said she “owed a lot” to her brothers for encouraging her to go pro. “Dan was like, ‘You know you could be really good.’ He gave me confidence. The reason I started racing was because he told me to.”
Atherton has also won five downhill world cups and two European championships. She said England’s success at this year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games would be “huge” for her sport, especially for young people in cities like London. She did not participate but Annie Last took gold and Evie Richards silver.
“Any Olympic-style event is going to be massive and the girls taking gold and silver is really important,” she said. “For girls and boys, seeing it on TV will be a real inspiration. They can realise if they are really good, they can be professional.”
It follows a dramatic competition at the Fort William leg of the world cup last weekend, where her bike chain snapped, leaving her in third place.
