Rachel Atherton poses for a portrait during the UCI MTB World Championships in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa Photo: Redbull Content Pool
Mountain biking is a relatively small and niche sport and as such, those that do so very well, shine very brightly. Rachel Atherton is one of those stars, she dominated last season taking both the world cup overall and the world championships. There was also the small matter of the British Championships.
National and International mainstream recognition for mountain biking has been on the up in recent years following on the wave of popularity of road cycling. However, we have a chance to put mountain biking in the spotlight and see our star shine as bright as she deserves.
Nominations for the 2013 Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards are drawing to a close and the deadline is this monday, 4th November. Nominations are voted for by us, the general public, which means Rach needs your help to be recognised.
The awards are described here and you can cast your vote with the form on this page. It will only take a minute to fill out, to make it easier, heres what to write.
Question 1: Who is your nomination for The Sunday Times & Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year?
Rachel Atherton
Question 2: Who is your nomination for Young Sportswoman of the Year?
Manon Carpenter
The rest of them answer as you like, Just make sure you fill in all your details and press submit. I’m sure Rachel will really appreciate your support.
Get it done!!
Rachel Atherton in Leogang, Austria. Photo: Redbull content Pool
From Atherton Racing:
We think you’ll agree that Rachel has had an amazing year. The 2013 season has seen her collect a cupboard full of trophies including the World Championships win, the World Cup Series Overall, and British National Championships win. Four individual World Cup wins take her to a new level as the most awarded British Mountain-biker in the history of the sport with a total of 19 World Cup wins to her name.
Recently we’ve seen some long overdue coverage for downhill mountain-biking creeping in to the mainstream with exposure through Rachel’s guest appearances on the BBC’s Saturday Sports Day, BT Sports Panel Show, and BBC1’s Supersized Earth. She’s been featured in the Sunday Times Sports Section, appears with brother Dan in the Relative Values section of the Sunday Times Magazine and was mentioned on Radio 2 breakfast. The coverage looks set to continue with a scheduled slot on ITV Wales.
We’d love to see Rachel and our sport as a whole gain the recognition they deserve. If you agree please nominate Rachel for the 2013 Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswomen of the Year Awards by going online at
http://www1.skysports.com/news/12110/8947764/2013-sunday-times-and-sky-sports-sportswomen-of-the-year-awards before November 4th.
Remember only the weight of your support will get Rachel onto the shortlist of 10. The Awards will be broadcast live by Sky on Thursday December 5th.
