Nineteen-year-old downhiller, Jessica Blewitt, is quickly emerging as one of the most promising and talented Kiwi females to hit the World Cup circuit in a long time. She doesn’t just have speed, either: her freeride capabilities were on display at the Red Bull Formation contest in Utah, and in Queenstown, where she’ll happily throw a suicide no-hander at Dream Track. A former ski racer, she picked up a DH bike in 2018 and by 2021 was the New Zealand Elite National Champion. Whether it’s steep, technical trails in a stacked international field, or massive dirt jumps, Jess isn’t afraid to send it.
We first caught up just before she headed to Snowshoe for the final two rounds of the UCI Downhill World Cup. Bright and optimistic, she was looking forward to finishing on a strong note before returning to New Zealand for a jam-packed summer. A lot has happened since then. A nasty high-speed crash at the bottom of the Snowshoe course on her final run left Jessica with injuries no 19-year-old should endure. We chatted
