Meet Kate Courtney, the American mountain biking sensation

Kate Courtney is a big name in mountain biking. The American has already made her mark on the sport throughout her career and is looking to add more trophies to her already impressive trophy haul. Join us as we take a look back at the career and life of one of the biggest stars in American cycling.

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Born in 1995, Courtney grew up with Mount Tamalpais on her doorstep, as she describes in her bio on her personal website. It is there that she took her first steps in cycling with her father on a tandem mountain bike.

Courtney got the mountain biking bug and competed for the USA National Team and Whole Athlete Development Team during high school, as per USA Cycling. She soon made a name for himself in her home country.

She won a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in 2012, according to mtbdata, making her the first American woman to do so in the junior category.

She had her eyes set on a professional career, and that dream came true when she signed with Specialized Bicycles in 2013, Courtney recalls on her website.

The years after, she kept improving and enjoyed an excellent 2017, with several U23 World Cup wins and the U23 World Cup overall title. She put the icing on the cake with her first elite national cross-country title, RXR Sports reports on its website.

The following year, Courtney competed in the Cape Epic, a mountain bike stage race in South Africa, considered one of the toughest in the world. She impressed alongside her Danish teammate Annika Langvad and took several stages and the overall victory.

That same year, Courtney achieved what was arguably her greatest victory. Against all odds, she became the XC Elite World Champion, USA Cycling reported.

A new adventure lay ahead in 2019, as Courtney bid farewell to Specialized Bicycles and joined Scott-SRAM, according to her personal website.

It was a move that brought success, as she won multiple World Cups and claimed the overall UCI World Cup series title, as recorded by USA Cycling.

In 2021, Courtney wanted to excel at the Tokyo Olympics, but she experienced a difficult race, finishing only 15th. Yet she did not sound too disappointed afterwards.

"It wasn’t my best race, but I think there’s no other event where you cross the line in a less than ideal position, and still feel really honored and humbled to be here representing your country and representing your family, and for me, it’s just been really an honor to be here in the first place," Outside Magazine quoted her after the race.

However, Courtney hit back and reaped several successes after her Olympic disappointment in Tokyo. In 2023, for example, she won both the short track and cross-country Pan American Championships, according to mtbdata.

Thanks to her victories, Courtney has become one of the world stars of women's mountain biking, securing several sponsorship deals with major companies such as Red Bull and Oakley, among others, as she explains on her website.

To stay on top, Courtney's has to follow a rigorous training regime, and she tries to keep things varied by including other activities into her schedule. "I ride seven days a week. I go to the gym two to three days a week and then there’s yoga, physical therapy, pilates, etc," she said in an interview with Red Bull when asked about the training hours she puts in.

Off the bike, Courtney has a Bachelors degree in Human Biology from Stanford, but after graduating she concentrated entirely on her mountain biking career.

In 2020, Courtney told her followers on Instagram that she took a big step in her personal life by marrying her partner Will Patterson.

Her fans can follow her professional career and her life on her Instagram account, where she has accumulated more than 550,000 followers. And you, do you already follow Courtney?

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