With her three World Championships and 26 World Cup wins, Rachel Atherton is not only Britain’s most successful ever downhill racer but also a legend of mountain biking as a sport.

Unfortunately Rachel hasn’t got to the very top unscathed and in this video you can see some of the nastiest scars she’s picked up in her racing career.

>>> Click here to see Brendan Fairclough’s scars

Most of her large scars have come from surgical procedures. Her most notable one is from a graft on her her left shoulder in which the surgeon took a nerve out of her leg and re-inserted it into her shoulder. This has given Atherton 60 per cent muscle function in a deltoid that was otherwise useless. Apparently Rachel has photos of the whole procedure, but we’re pretty sure we’d rather not see them

Other than that Rachel describes herself as “pretty lucky” as far as injuries are concerned with only two broken wrists and a broken finger. She describes her broken finger as her worst injury but despite the pain she still rode and won the 2010 Maribor World Cup in Slovenia on it.

Rachel is currently fighting fit and if it stays that way will be looking to defend her World Cup and World Championship titles in 2016.