Sophie Thornhill
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| Born |
9 February 1996 Poynton, Cheshire, England |
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| Height | 5 ft 5 in (165 cm) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 60 kg (130 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Current team | Boot Out Breast Cancer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Discipline | Track | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Role | Stoker | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rider type | Sprinter | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Boot Out Breast Cancer | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Sophie Thornhill, MBE (born 9 February 1996) is a visually impaired English racing cyclist who competes in para-cycling tandem track events. She is a double world champion, with pilot Rachel James, and a double Commonwealth gold medallist, with pilot Helen Scott, in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial events. In April 2014, she set world records in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial, piloted by James.
Thornhill comes from Poynton near in Cheshire. She attended Poynton High School, also attended by para-cyclist Sarah Storey. She has only 7–9% vision owing to oculocutaneous albinism, which causes visual impairment. She met the para-cyclist Anthony Kappes, also visually impaired, via her uncle; he encouraged her to train as a track cyclist.
Thornhill started racing as an adult in May 2013, aged 17. She races as the stoker on the back of a tandem, with the front position occupied by a pilot with normal vision. She was initially piloted by English cyclist Helen Scott, with whom she won three British events. In September 2013 she switched to the Welsh cyclist Rachel James as her pilot. Her international debut came with James in December at the International Paracycling Cup in Newport, Wales, where the pair won two gold medals; their time of 1:09.446 in the 1 km time trial missed the world record by 0.73 seconds.
Her first major international competition was the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in April 2014. Thornhill and James won the gold medal in the tandem 1 km time trial; their time of 1:05.912 broke the world record by a little under 3 seconds. The pair won gold in the sprint, beating the New Zealand pair Emma Foy and Laura Fairweather 2–0 in the semi-final, and the Australian pair Brandie O'Connor and Breanna Hargrave 2–0 in the final. They also broke the world record in the qualifying round of the sprint with a flying start time over 200 metres of 10.854 seconds.
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