Senior Rachel Cathey, freshman Sita Cooper, and sophomore Ireland Laxton lead the pack on the Watauga County Mountain Bike Team
The Watauga County Mountain Bike team’s 2024 season is now in full swing. With two of the season's races already behind her Senior Rachel Cathey is looking forward to finishing her high school career strong and continuing that strength into college.
The season has started well for the team's women racers, with all of their podiums being from women. This is especially amazing to Cathey given the gender make up of mountain bike racing.
“As a team, we have done 2 races now and have done pretty well. We have had multiple women's podiums,” Cathey said. “This is a big deal because our team is 40% women in a male-dominated sport that is normally like 20% women, especially in national leagues,”
Even though mountain biking is a male-dominated sport, the team's women members have consistently podiumed at the first two races of the summer.
“The first race was in Browns Creek, North Carolina, and in that one, I got 5th and podiumed. Ireland Laxton got 2nd, and Sita Cooper podiumed as well,” Cathey said. “In the second race Sita Cooper podiumed, and got 5th, but she was the only one for the second race.“
Cathey will attend Western Colorado University and be a member of their club mountain bike team next year and is excited to take advantage of all the school has to offer.
“I will be one of the female members on their team and I am going to try to help get more women to join their team,” Cathey said. “Right now I race cross-country mountain biking, but I’m going to try downhill.”
In addition to mountain biking, Cathey is also looking forward to partaking in many of the school's other outdoor activities and taking advantage of their strong programs.
“Part of why I was also drawn was because they have really good exercise science program and so I am going to major in clinical exercise science,” Cathey said. “Their mountain sports program is huge and they have a lot of outdoor adventure focus and sustainability focus, so I am excited to volunteer and work with a lot of that and do wilderness orientation and stuff.”
The Watauga Mountain Bike team is full of superb athletes but is also an example of girls being successful in a male-dominated sport. Cathey has taken the experience on the Watauga team and plans to take her passion and encourage more women to participate in the sport during her collegiate career.
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