Tracey Hannah spoke at a recent TedTalk conference in Cairns, Australia about the highs and lows of her racing career so far.

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This isn’t a riding video (there is some good POV footage mixed in actually). But it’s more than just a talking head too. It’s eight minutes long so it’s a nice vid to watch over a cuppa during a break from your work.

Tracey’s a bit nervous on stage at first but she has an interesting story to tell about life as a downhill racer.

She goes into detail about how she started, how hard it was/is to get sponsored as a female rider, her World Cup comeback after five years away, her numerous crashes, injuries and recoveries.

To be fair, it does actually sound for the most like the talk should be called “Why going downhill is not good”!

Video description

“In 2016 Tracey Hannah was ranked 3rd in the World for Downhill Mountain Bike Racing. In this talk Tracey explains her love of hurdling down mountains.

“Tracey Hannah, is a champion downhill mountain biker who was born and raised in Cairns. She is currently ranked number three in the world.

“Tracey started riding bikes at three years of age, and when she was just four years old raced her first national BMX title. Tracey began her professional downhill mountain biking career at the age of 14, when she raced her first elite national title and came second. She has since won a plethora of mountain biking titles, including first place in the Australian Championships 2014, first place in the Crankworx Air DH in 2014, and first place in the City Downhill Bratislava in 2013.

“After taking a break following a few serious accidents which left her with two broken collarbones, a bruised lung, and a broken femur, Tracey returned to racing in 2014.

“She placed third in the 2015 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships and in 2016 Tracey won her ninth Elite Women Downhill Australian Championships.

“This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.”