Kate Courtney (cyclist)

Born to Maggie and Tom Courtney in October 1995, Kate Courtney grew up in Marin County, California at the base of Mount Tamalpais, which is considered to be the birthplace of mountain biking.^[1] Courtney was introduced to cycling at a young age by her father and they would ride a mountain-bike tandem up Mount Tamalpais together.^{[2] [better source needed]} She joined her school mountain bike team at Branson High School.^[3] While at high school, Courtney competed for the USA National Team and Whole Athlete Development Team in international events. In 2012, Courtney became the first American woman to win a UCI Mountain Bike World Cup in the Junior category.

In 2013, Courtney went to Stanford University to study human biology.^[4] In the same year, she signed her first professional contract with Specialized Bicycles.^{[citation needed]}

After graduating from Stanford University in 2017, Courtney began racing full-time and in her first full season in 2017 won four U23 World Cups and the U23 World Cup overall title, and took a silver medal at the U23 world championship.^[5] She is a two-time US cross-country (XC) national champion, having won the title in 2017 and 2018. Courtney participated at the 2018 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships, winning the gold medal in the women's elite cross country race.^[6] It was the first such win for an American since 2001.^[7]

In 2018, Courtney took part in the Cape Epic Stage race with her Specialized teammate Annika Langvad; the teammates won seven individual stages and took the Overall team victory.^[3]

In 2019, Courtney left Specialized for the Scott-SRAM team headed by Swiss mountain bike legend, Thomas Frischknecht .^[8][9] She ended the season as the UCI World Cup series winner.^[10]

In 2020, Courtney appeared in a concussion education video as part of the CrashCourse virtual reality series for TeachAids.^[11] In 2024, Courtney appeared alongside Tom Cruise in a video promoting the 2028 Summer Olympics which was shown at the 2024 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.^[12]