Taupō is not short of mountain bikers, and now it’s also home to the world under-23 women’s champion.
The first-place cross-country finish at the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Scotland last month was hardly the first time Sammie Maxwell has stepped up to the podium.
The latest gold medal will join a host of other accolades for the local 21-year-old, including having participated in five cross-country Olympic national under-23 championships and a national cross-country marathon as well as garnering short track and eliminator wins, and she has a total of five World Cup under-23 finishes in cross-country Olympic and short track races.
Maxwell now lives in Wellington, where she works as a biomedical lab researcher, but she has received a professional cycling contract and hopes to become a more familiar sight on local tracks in the near future.
Her passion for cycling started in Taupō when she began tagging along with her dad and brother on rides at Craters Mountain Bike Park, although she admits their traditional trip to McDonald’s for icecream afterwards was a factor in her interest.