“WE WERE LAUGHED AT AS WOMEN, CONSTANTLY. BUT NOW IT'S UNDENIABLE: IF YOU'RE GOING TO SAY WOMEN'S RIDING ISN'T IMPRESSIVE THEN YOU'RE LIVING UNDER A ROCK”

Canadian DH racer turned freeride star Micayla Gatto tells us about the mixed-media edit that made her famous, riding at Red Bull formation, and her Type Z personality

You started out as a World Cup racer and a really successful one. Why did you leave that life?

My last World Cup season was in 2014 and I crashed really hard at Wyndham. I destroyed my hip, got separation in my shoulder, but the bad thing was I got a really severe concussion. I suffered from post-concussion and I took a full year off. I lost my mountain bike sponsors and kind of went to ground zero. I couldn’t get on a mountain bike team that winter. And it gave me time to really reflect on what I’d accomplished and where I was at in my career and where I wanted to go with it. I’d been to all these places, traveled the world since I was 16, never making a dime, working three jobs to maintain my top 10 rankings. I’d accomplished everything I wanted to without taking it to that next level of training and sacrifice.

Did that crash end up being a good thing then, in a perverse way?

The injury, as horrific as it was, was an amazing thing that forced me to take a step back and look at what I was doing. There was a moment of an identity crisis. You don’t realize how much you were forcing something until you’re out of it. You ignore the signs and put up with the struggle. Forced change is uncomfortable but it’s what you need to gain perspective. A lot of people have decided to change their lives after Covid, prioritize their own happiness and self-care over making money.

I wanted to dive more into the culture and people and experience of these places rather than just showing up and racing and going home. I felt like it was time to incorporate more of my creative side and my art, as I’m an artist too, and I felt my life was really imbalanced.

Is that where the idea for Intersection began, the video edit where you ride through your artwork?