![\"Evie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/d2c74597-3914-4d1d-9ed9-d391f67fbd14.jpg\")
<\/p>\nEvie Richards was in second place when the crash happened. She was racing in Araxa, Brazil, in 2024, just three months away from the Paris Olympic Games, and she was trying to make up some time on the leader.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d gone so fast into the jump,\u201d she says. \u201cI completely overshot the landing and landed into the take-off of the next jump and just remember crumpling and landing on my head.\u201d<\/p>\n
But there was a race at stake and so the mountain biker from Malvern, Worcestershire, got up as quickly as she went down, climbed back on and finished the race. <\/p>\n
\u201cAfterwards, people were like \u2018are you OK?\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Yeah, yeah, I\u2019m fine.\u2019 \u201d she says. \u201cI went to find my team-mate and took her on a cool-down spin and when we rode through the paddock there were more people that said, \u2018You don\u2019t seem quite with it.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
But still the Trek Factory Racing rider refused to accept there was anything wrong. First the adrenaline of racing had yet to subside but also accepting the truth may have meant an end to her season and her ultimate goal of competing for an Olympic medal. <\/p>\n
\u201cThose were our selection races for the Olympics,\u201d she says, \u201cand it was a really big year for me. I told Mum and Dad that I wasn\u2019t feeling well but I didn\u2019t tell anyone else because maybe I just didn\u2019t want to show any weakness. I trained a lot to go into those races and I wasn\u2019t going to let a fall stop that.\u201d<\/p>\n
After three weeks of feeling tired and struggling to balance on her bike or even sit at dinner with her family, Richards accepted that she wasn\u2019t just jetlagged but had concussion. \u201cIt was pretty stupid,\u201d she says. \u201cWhen I look back now, I\u2019m frustrated at myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Richards returned to Araxa to win the World Cup event, a year after her horrific crash there<\/p>\n
FABIO PIVA\/RED BULL<\/p>\n
She finally got the help she needed. She rested, she stopped riding, and with the help of her psychologist, Rich Hampson, and a Team GB physio she was put on the path to recovery. Richards could not take her eye off Paris 2024, but her team said she definitely wouldn\u2019t be there if she didn\u2019t recover first.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found it really hard,\u201d Richards says. \u201cI think I\u2019m such a happy person and it felt like it just took everything from me. There was nothing I could do that would bring me joy or anything. I couldn\u2019t ride, I couldn\u2019t exercise, the only thing I could do was sleep and lie on an acupuncture mat and it was a really hard place.\u201d<\/p>\n
During this period, Richards was very open on Instagram to her 248,000 followers about the struggles she faced both mentally and physically and showing that a successful athlete can also be vulnerable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that\u2019s the benefit of Instagram,\u201d Richards says. \u201cIt\u2019s so important to show the bad times because otherwise you\u2019re just posting all the perfect beautiful times and it\u2019s just so unrealistic. Those Instagram accounts that are unrealistic I find hard to follow because life isn\u2019t like that, it\u2019s not all perfect \u2014 so I think it\u2019s really important to share.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Evie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/ee40a574-84c0-44a1-85d1-1354cf501d0a.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Richards was inspired to devote her life to cycling by one day being able to compete at the Olympics<\/p>\n
ALAMY<\/p>\n
After weeks of recovery and rest and following the guidance of her coaches, Richards started to become her former self.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe made a plan and it was really weird like it all suddenly came together,\u201d she says. \u201cI think I got my period and then the next day I felt good again. I\u2019d lost my period from the concussion, which was really strange, and then I got it back and it felt like a switch of the light. I felt like I\u2019d suddenly come round.\u201d<\/p>\n
She was finally able to think about being selected for the cross-country mountain biking event at the Olympics. She started training and racing again, and in July of that year she lined up at the start at Colline d\u2019\u00c9lancourt, southwest of the French capital. \u201cWhen I got to Paris I can\u2019t describe it,\u201d Richards says. \u201cIt had taken me so much to get to this start line that it felt even more special. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was with my parents and I felt like the happiest person ever. I think a lot of people around me probably felt so nervous but I\u2019m here, I\u2019ve made it despite everything, and this just feels amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
She would finish fifth in the event won by France\u2019s Pauline Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot but to even compete at Paris 2024 was an achievement after crashing in April.<\/p>\n
The 28-year-old returned to Brazil this year and won the event in Araxa \u2014 the scene of her crash \u2014 to become the most successful female short track cross-country rider of all time, ahead of Ferrand-Pr\u00e9vot, before taking the World Cup overall title this month with a hard-fought second place in Mont-Sainte-Anne, Canada.<\/p>\n
![\"Evie](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/\/c84a6756-b7f8-4c9a-b6f0-61a25c691e86.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Richards, pictured in Les Gets in France this year, took the World Cup overall title this month and is now the most successful female short track cross-country rider of all time<\/p>\n
BILLY CEUSTERS\/GETTY IMAGES<\/p>\n