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Tue 9 Dec, 12:31 pm UTC

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Mountain bike champion Rachel Atherton wins BBC award

By BikeRadar

2008 women’s downhill mountain bike world champion Rachel Atherton was last night named BBC Midlands Sportswoman of the Year.

Rachel was also nominated for 'personality of the year' alongside her brother, and fellow world champion, Gee.

Rachel said: "I was really surprised at winning as it was such tough competition, but delighted and honoured!”

On being asked whether downhill should become an Olympic discipline, Gee said: "I'd love to see it in the Olympics, and it's quite a goal of my sister and me to get our sport more in the public eye."

User Comments

There are 17 comments on this post

Showing 1 - 17 of 17 comments

  • Wow, I'm scared reading this as she would probably piss all over me on a bike

  • Err....YES she would..(I think the WORLD CHAMPION thing is a pretty big clue..)

  • The Brits give their top award to a whiner (Atherton complained when she got beaten by a girl wearing a skinsuit), that's so British.

    It still annoys me that the UCI is so anti-progress. You'd have to be an idiot to DH in baggy clothing!

  • Only the brits could whine about a world champion getting an award.

  • what is with the anti-brit rampage?

    sounds to me like the only ones doing the whining is you lot.

  • The three of them (Athertons) sound quite sorted to me. The success doesn't seem to have gone to their heads, and they seem to have a laugh, rather than the whining that people talk about.

    And, although I don't really care what uniform people wear, skin suits do look a bit rubbish - I wouldn't race XC in lycra! Might even be tempted to wear 5-10s...

  • and she's looking well!!!! lol

  • delighted

    top family

  • I agree she be looking very easy on the eye ayeeeeeee, bad ass biker too

  • man she has thee fattest tongue ring, my god!

  • its downhill biking, not downhill skiing, youre gonna get more out of being comfortable and able to concentrate than being streamlined

  • well done that girl ive been mtb ing for 20yrs its about time it was noticed as a real sport not just a past time.

  • Skinsuits now are no longer permitted in World Cup and championships, that´s a UCI decision for 2009.

    It´s funny to hear an Englishman say "that´s so british". In Germany we would say about the same thing: "that´s so ..." guess what! "fucking german".

  • apart from that I´m very delighted to hear that MTB DH has taken another step of getting accepted as a real high level sports. The media are already more interested in DH than in XC. And DH Ski is just boring to watch.

  • Yup huge respect to the family.. and especially Rachel!

    Its nice to see the sport being pushed forward ! and yes she looks fantastic... :)

  • @DoctorBobrick- what makes you think a skinsuit isn't comfortable?

  • I sure wouldn't find it comfortable lol

  • 1

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