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She’s additionally been capable of seize the eye of judges in all places from the Enduro World Sequence to the Crankworx World Tour, the place she gained her first gold medal within the downhill occasion in 2023.
Damage-free and again on high kind, she’s decided to push the game and her personal limits so far as they’ll go. Right here’s her story.
Like most individuals who develop as much as be athletic badasses, Blewitt – initially from Mount Manganui on New Zealand’s North Island – was tremendous sporty from the get-go. “I attempted each sport rising up and was actually good at a couple of of them, though I by no means adopted via with most of them,” she says.
On condition that, it’s ironic that bikes weren’t an enormous a part of her childhood. Barring biking to and from college, for a lot of her youth, she was targeted on ski racing.
“I began snowboarding once I was two, between my dad and mom’ legs,” she laughs. “I did my first race aged eight, in Canada. I don’t keep in mind the way it went, however after that, I began ski racing.”
Again residence, Blewitt took an intro program with the Queenstown Alpine Ski Staff on the close by Coronet Peak. After spending the subsequent few years excelling in large slalom and Tremendous G occasions, she says she “acquired to the purpose the place I did not actually see myself going any additional”. Quickly after, she determined to solely ski for enjoyable – at the moment she misses it, however says she hasn’t skied since earlier than 2020.
There was lots to maintain her busy: at numerous factors, she was additionally into dancing – specialising in jazz and a bit of up to date – in addition to surf lifesaving at a membership in Mount Maunganui. On the biking entrance, her dad and mom have been highway cyclists, however among the many youngsters, Blewitt says, “It was thought-about on the darkish facet if you happen to have been a highway bike owner.” When a pal from college lent her his mountain biking gear she was hooked. “I beloved it from the primary experience,” she says. “I used to be this loopy lady doing a little loopy stuff.”
Having experimented with a lot of totally different sports activities, Blewitt shortly realised mountain biking was the one for her. It was 2018, she was 15 and shortly after borrowing her pal’s bike she took half in a neighborhood race. From there, her profession shortly gathered velocity.
“I did one race, and everybody was like, ‘It is best to do the nationals’,” she recollects. In 2019, she did simply that, signing up for her first New Zealand Nationwide collection. She gained each race she entered, solely to come back again all the way down to earth after a crash on the Nationwide Championships.
“I might have gone to the Junior World Cups, however I used to be nonetheless so new to it that it did not actually cross my thoughts that I might truly do that,” she says, regardless of the widespread help of family and friends.
Blewitt says mastering new abilities like realizing when and the way a lot to brake took a while to grasp, however her confidence and development on the bike shortly mounted up, partly as a consequence of her snowboarding background.
“In my first 12 months, I actually rode with boys the entire time, so I positively crashed loads, however I believe I learnt loads and it helped,” she laughs. “After all, there’s a lot you possibly can take from ski racing into mountain biking: selecting a line, going quick and staying balanced. And I suppose with the entire means you strategy a ski race it’s totally related when it comes to mindset. My leaping abilities positively come from Tremendous G, too.”
Nonetheless, it wasn’t till the next 12 months, 2020, that Blewitt started to grasp this was one thing she was good at. She took first place within the under-19 class of Crankworx Rotorua and first place at Phoenix Enduro earlier than profitable New Zealand’s nationwide championship title, which helped safe a spot on the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup roster.
Throughout a race week it’s totally aggressive however then exterior of that, we’re all mates
When the pandemic hit, she was planning to race her final ever Juniors, however sadly with the world locked down, that wasn’t to be. Nonetheless, she had discovered her calling.
As soon as competitions returned, Blewitt hit the bottom operating, with an invite to showcase her abilities Stateside at Pink Bull Formation 2021 in Virgin, Utah. She adopted that up with a string of spectacular Enduro World Sequence and World Cup shows, however a giant crash on the last World Cup race of the 12 months in Snowshoe, USA, resulted in a number of accidents to her leg, backbone, wrist and ribs. An extended interval of rehab adopted, however she returned to World Cup motion in 2022, the highlights of which have been fourth-place finishes in Arinsal, Mont-Saint-Anne and Val di Sole. However extra on that later.
All through these first post-pandemic years, Blewitt says her crew helped her via with phrases of encouragement. “Throughout a race week, it’s totally aggressive, however then exterior of that, we’re all mates,” she says. “That is the way it needs to be. The mountain biking neighborhood is fairly cool. Usually, there isn’t any competitors between folks exterior of the competitors. It is a good vibe.”
Her string of successes continued when she first went to Europe in 2022 as the primary girl to look at Pink Bull Hardline in Machynlleth, Wales. “The primary 12 months once I went over, I used to be positively a little bit bit homesick. However final 12 months, I did not need to go away. I actually get pleasure from Europe and the UK, Canada and America.”
Regardless of being a crew participant, Blewitt stays fiercely particular person. “I haven’t got a coach, however I’ve a crew round me: my crew with GT [Bicycles] and Pink Bull, after which a physio and a private coach,” she explains. “However I don’t have a bike-specific coach. It has been me all on my own.”
Whereas she acts as her personal coach, Blewitt isn’t whispering phrases of encouragement to herself whereas she rides. “I do not actually converse to myself an excessive amount of once I experience. I used to say ‘Relax, Jess’ once I acquired a little bit bit too sketchy, however that’s it – I simply go.”
Add to that a little bit little bit of drum ’n’ bass and perhaps one thing a bit extra relaxed 10-20 minutes earlier than a race, and he or she’s good.
Having damaged her tibia and fibula snowboarding, Blewitt is used to accidents, however her Snowshoe crash in 2021 was undoubtedly her worst MTB wipeout.
“I knew I’d carried out my femur, after which when the adrenaline wore off a bit, I knew I’d carried out my collarbone in addition to my wrist,” she says. “I did not know I would carried out all these different issues as effectively. I used to be helicoptered to hospital the place I didn’t stroll for 2 weeks.”
For 14 days, she was unable to bend her knee previous ten levels. Flights to Los Angeles then again to New Zealand adopted the place she needed to quarantine for 4 days, seeing her mother for an hour a day and her dad via glass. “I hated it,” she says. “However I would not have been capable of do something except my mother was there.”
Physio adopted. Three months later, she acquired again on the bike, only for a flat experience. “It took a very very long time for me to get a spin via, a rotation, as a result of my knee was not bending correctly,” she explains. “That was the most important battle. And it was like, ‘Oh, when am I going to have the ability to experience as a result of that is nonetheless taking place?’ However I knew I simply needed to be affected person, though I am not a really affected person particular person.”
Clearly, I’d love to return [to Red Bull Hardline]. I need to race and truly end it
Ultimately, willpower gained out, and Blewitt was match to experience Pink Bull Hardline in Machynlleth, Wales, the next 12 months – making her the primary girl to look within the occasion. “I needed to go to Hardline to start out pushing the ladies’s facet of the game there,” she says.
“Hardline was the right alignment of two disciplines into one,” she provides. “I used to be scoping out tips on how to get myself an invitation or how I might go alongside. I did a monitor stroll in Could. The purpose was to only go there and see how a lot I might experience. I did not need to race it and I did not truly need to hit any options. However I used to be actually stoked once I acquired the thumbs up that it was going to occur.”
Ultimately, it wasn’t to be. Blewitt smashed her collarbone whereas driving the course, ruling her out of competitors. “It was the identical one I additionally broke at Snowshoe, so I already had a plate, after which I needed to have an additional plate placed on high to attempt to repair that,” she laughs.
Nonetheless, her efforts earned her the coveted Rider of the Week award. “These occasions clearly have an enormous threat issue concerned, however everybody was motivated to go experience this super-gnarly course. I used to be feeling fairly good on the bike, and I used to be eyeing up hitting The Renegade, however as quickly as I hit the bottom, I knew there was one thing improper, and it wasn’t actually till the adrenaline wore off that I realised I would carried out one thing to my shoulder, after which the realisation that I would not be capable to experience the remainder of the week kicked in,” she explains.
“Women can do it as effectively, it simply takes a little bit bit extra,” she says after rising up in a male-dominated sport. “Now it is large, there are such a lot of ladies. It has come a good distance for ladies and it is actually cool to see.”
The 2023 World Cup season noticed Blewitt construct on her fourth-place finishes the earlier season. A 3rd place at Val di Sole, her best-ever World Cup consequence to this point, confirmed she was now in competition for a doable win.
However then one other damage, this time sustained at a girls’s efficiency camp on the Pink Bull Hardline website in 2023 ended her season prematurely. She was not one of many six girls to compete at Pink Bull Hardline Australia in February of this 12 months, as a consequence of scheduling points, however the hearth remains to be there.
“Clearly, I’d love to return. I need to race and truly end it, however we’ll need to see and see if my schedule is true,” she laughs. She did, nonetheless, handle to win her first Crankworx World Tour gold medal within the downhill occasion that very same 12 months.
Exterior of that, as a lifelong athlete, Blewitt is at all times advancing and at all times practising one thing new. “I am simply engaged on a couple of little issues that assist lead as much as a race run,” she says. “For instance, getting an ideal warmup and enhancing a couple of technical abilities. Everybody from the UK is admittedly good at driving the whip. There’s at all times one thing to work on.”
Most significantly, in 2024, Blewitt is concentrated on having enjoyable. “In case you have enjoyable, usually the consequence follows,” she says. “That was how I strategy it now, simply to have enjoyable and see what occurs reasonably than placing this excessive quantity of strain on myself.”
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