Sophie Thornhill

Thornhill comes from Poynton near Stockport in Cheshire. She attended Poynton High School, also attended by para-cyclist Sarah Storey,[1][3] and Loughborough College.[4] She has only 7–9% vision owing to oculocutaneous albinism, which causes visual impairment.[1][3] She met the para-cyclist Anthony Kappes, also visually impaired, via her uncle; he encouraged her to train as a track cyclist.[1][3]

Thornhill started racing as an adult in May 2013, aged 17.[1] She raced as the stoker on the back of a tandem, with the front position occupied by a pilot with normal vision.[3] She was initially piloted by English cyclist Helen Scott, with whom she won three British events.[3] In September 2013 she switched to the Welsh cyclist Rachel James as her pilot.[5] 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.[5][6]

Her first major international competition was the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in April 2014.[1][7][8] 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.[9] 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.[1][10][11] 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.[1][12]

Thornhill was selected for the English team at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland, where para-cycling appeared for the first time;[13][14] at 18, she was the track cycling team's youngest member. As James was competing for the Welsh team, Thornhill returned to Scott as her pilot to compete in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial events.[13][14] The pair won the gold medal in the sprint, beating the Australian Paralympic champion Felicity Johnson and pilot Holly Takos 2–0 in the semi-final, and the Scottish pair Aileen McGlynn and Louise Haston 2–0 in the final.[15][16][17] They set the Commonwealth record during qualification, with a time of 11.277 seconds.[16][18] The pair also won gold in the 1 km time trial, with a time of 1:08.187, a Commonwealth Games record.[18][19][20] They beat silver medallists McGlynn and Haston by more than 1.5 seconds.[19][20] Sarah Storey commented: "They had a superbly executed start – they have worked so hard on that aspect of their training – and with the turbo intervals they have done they were able to bring it home strongly."[21]

Thornhill reunited with James to compete in the 2014 British National Track Championships in September, where they won the mixed time trial[22] and the 200-metre flying start time trial for blind and visually impaired riders.[23]

At the 2016 Rio Paralympics Thornhill won gold in the 1km time trial B[24] and bronze in the individual pursuit B,[4] on both occasions alongside Helen Scott.

She was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2017 New Year Honours for services to cycling.[25]

In June 2020 Thornhill announced her retirement from competition, after the 2020 Summer Paralympics were delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She indicated that she would focus on her educational career, taking up a place to study history at Manchester Metropolitan University in September.[26]

• Sophie Thornhill at the British Paralympic Association
• Sophie Thornhill at the International Paralympic Committee
• Sophie Thornhill at Team England
• Sophie Thornhill at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games (archived)