| Personal information | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Samara Louise Maxwell | ||||||||||||||
| Born | 27 December 2001 Taupō, New Zealand | ||||||||||||||
| Height | 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) [1] | ||||||||||||||
| Team information | |||||||||||||||
| Disciplines | |||||||||||||||
| Role | Rider | ||||||||||||||
| Rider type | cross-country | ||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Samara Louise Maxwell (born 27 December 2001), generally known as Sammie Maxwell, is a cross-country cyclist from New Zealand. At the 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, she became the women's under-23 cross-country world champion.
Maxwell was born on 27 December 2001 [2] in Taupō. [3] She received her schooling at Taupo Intermediate School [4] and Tauhara College. [5]
As a young woman, Maxwell suffered from an eating disorder that developed into relative energy deficiency in sport (RED-S); this was diagnosed during 2018. By early 2021, Maxwell was still on a reduced training programme to deal with reduced energy levels. [3]
Maxwell is now based in Wellington. She studied at Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with a bachelor's degree in biomedical sciences in 2023. [3] [6] She aims to complete a PhD one day and work in cancer research. [3]
Maxwell got into mountain biking as an eight-year-old, inspired by her father who also got her brother riding. [7] She mainly competes in cross-country, but also races cyclo-cross and on the road. [1]
Maxwell competed at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires, Argentina, alongside Phoebe Young in the combined team event; they came eighth. [3] [8]
At the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada, Maxwell came 14th in the junior cross-country race. [9]
At the August 2023 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships held in Scotland's Glentress Forest, Maxwell beat the two Swiss riders who had been seen as pre-race favourites: Ginia Caluori and Ronja Blöchlinger. In the world championship race, she held a lead from the beginning. [10] She is the first New Zealander to win the U23 world title. [11]
Mountain bike racing is the competitive cycle sport discipline of mountain biking held on off-road terrain. The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) recognised the discipline relatively late in 1990, when it sanctioned the world championships in Durango, Colorado. The first UCI Mountain Bike World Cup series took place in 1988. Its nine-race circuit covered two continents—Europe and North America—and was sponsored by Grundig. Cross-country racing was the only World Cup sport at this time. In 1993, a six-event downhill World Cup was introduced. In 1996, cross-country mountain biking events were added to the Olympic Games. In 2006, cross-country mountain biking events became part of the World Deaf Cycling Championships for the first time in San Francisco, USA.
Tauhara College is a state coeducational secondary school located in Taupō, New Zealand. Serving Years 9 to 13, the school has approximately 600 students.
Taupo Intermediate School is a medium-sized intermediate school located in Taupō, New Zealand.
Rebecca McConnell is an Australian mountain biker. She represented Australia at the 2012, 2016 and 2020 Summer Olympics in the Mountain Bike Cross Country event. She came 28th at the 2020 Olympics.
Pauline Ferrand-Prévot is a French multi-discipline bicycle racer, who rides for UCI Mountain Bike team Ineos Grenadiers in cross-country cycling. Ferrand-Prévot has also competed in road bicycle racing and cyclo-cross during her career, winning the world title in each discipline. During the 2015 season, aged just 23, she became the first person ever – in the history of cycling – to simultaneously hold the World road title, World cyclo-cross title and World cross-country mountain bike title.
Paula Gorycka is a Polish cross-country mountain bike, road and cyclo-cross cyclist with two medals from the MTB World Championships and one medal from the MTB European Championships.
Stéphane Tempier is a French cross-country mountain biker who races for the Trek Factory Racing. He won the silver medal in the junior cross country at the 2004 world championships in Les Gets, France. At the 2005 world championships he won the bronze medal in the cross country team relay, riding the men's under-23 leg for the French team.
Anton Cooper is a New Zealand cross-country cyclist who races for the Trek Factory Racing XC Team. He is the 2015 World Under 23 Cross-country Mountain bike champion and the 2012 World Junior Cross-country Mountain bike champion. One of the two contenders for the country's 2016 Summer Olympics quota spot, he developed chronic fatigue earlier in 2016 and the nomination went to Sam Gaze instead. Cooper represented New Zealand at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, finishing sixth in the Men's Cross-country Mountain Bike final.
Jolanda Neff is a Swiss cyclist, who primarily rides in the cross-country cycling and cyclo-cross disciplines, for the Trek Factory Racing team. She won the gold medal in the women's cross-country event at the 2020 Summer Olympics.
Tereza Huříková is a Czech professional road cyclist and mountain biker. Throughout her sporting career, she has won numerous Czech national championship titles in women's cross-country, road races and time trial, and more importantly, a prestigious gold medal in the junior time trial at the 2004 UCI World Championships. Huříková later represented the Czech Republic, as a 20-year-old junior, at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and also rode for USC Chirio Forno d'Asolo and Česká Spořitelna MTB Cycling Teams since she turned professional in 2006. Currently, Huříková trains and races under an exclusive, two-year sponsorship contract for Germany's Central Haibike Pro Team, along with her teammate and 2008 Olympic champion Sabine Spitz.
Nathalie Jessica Schneitter is a Swiss professional mountain biker. Throughout her sporting career, she has won numerous Swiss national championship titles, and more importantly, a gold medal in the under-23 category at the 2008 European Mountain Bike Championships. Schneitter also handed an opportunity to represent her nation Switzerland at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and later rode professionally for more than five seasons on an exclusive sponsorship contract with the Colnago Team.
Roel Paulissen is a Belgian former professional mountain biker. Throughout his sporting career since 1993, he has won more than ten Belgian national championship titles, mounted top-five finishes at both the European and World Cup series, and claimed a total of four medals, including two golds, in men's cross-country race at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. Paulissen also represented his nation Belgium in four editions of the Olympic Games, where he competed in men's mountain biking since it officially became an Olympic sport in 1996. By the start of the 2010 season, Paulissen had been overshadowed by a doping issue after he tested positive for clomiphene that sidelined and effectively ended his mountain biking career. Having lifted a two-year suspension from doping in early 2013, Paulissen came out from his short retirement to join and race professionally for the Italian team Torpado.
Samuel William Gaze is a New Zealand cross-country and road cyclist, who currently rides for UCI ProTeam Alpecin–Deceuninck. He won the under-23 Cross-Country at the 2016 UCI Mountain Bike & Trials World Championships and the 2017 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships. He also competes on occasion in road racing events, winning the National Criterium Championships in 2017 and 2018.
Alice Barnes is an English racing cyclist, who rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam Human Powered Health.
Evie Richards is a British cyclist from Malvern, Worcestershire, England who specialises in mountain bike and cyclo-cross racing. who became the women's cross-country world champion at the 2021 Mountain Bike World Championships. Previously, Richards had been under-23 cyclo-cross world champion at the 2016 and 2018 World Championships. In 2022, Richards added a first Commonwealth Games gold in cross-country mountain bike to her palmarès.
Thomas Pidcock is a British cyclist who currently competes in the cyclo-cross, mountain bike and road bicycle racing disciplines of the sport for UCI WorldTeam Ineos Grenadiers.
Kathleen "Kathy" Lynch is a retired competitive cyclist from New Zealand who competed both on and off the road. With a talent for multiple sports disciplines, she won the canoeing events New Zealand White Water Downriver and Slalom Championships in 1987 and represented her country at the 1988 Canoe Slalom World Cup. Around the same time, she was also a successful triathlete, but did not continue with that sport. She bought her first mountain bike in 1988 at the age of 31 in order to compete in an adventure sport event, and within a year she had become the New Zealand national cross country champion. Around the same time, she also took up road cycling. She was included in the New Zealand team for the 1990 Commonwealth Games and was assigned as domestique for the top New Zealand road rider, Madonna Harris. Harris and Lynch finished in fourth and ninth places respectively. In September 1990, Lynch competed at the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and finished tenth. In November 1990, she became a household name in New Zealand by winning a 22-day multi-sport race the length of the country that had prime time TV coverage every night.
Niamh Fisher-Black is a New Zealand professional racing cyclist, who currently rides for UCI Women's WorldTeam SD Worx. She is the older sister of fellow racing cyclist Finn Fisher-Black, and was educated at Nelson College for Girls.
Haley Batten is an American cross-country and mountain bike cyclist.
The 2022 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships were held in the French commune Les Gets from 24 to 28 August 2022.
