There’s nothing like whipping through the trails of Squamish, tree branches swishing by as you soar over jumps and rattle over exposed tree roots, but local athlete Marin Lowe has recently achieved a new sort of high — taking the top title at the Canada Cup in both Olympic distance cross-country and short track mountain biking, with stiff competition coming from her Stimulus Orbea teammates.
Now the teenage local is spending the summer traversing the globe, hitting countries like Germany, Czechia, and Switzerland. She describes herself as passionate, driven, committed, coachable, and community-minded. She loves cross-country mountain biking and skiing, as well as cyclocross. She aspires to ultimately hit the World Cup and then the Olympics.
Next, she is off to Canada Summer Games next week and then to the UCI XCO MTB Junior World Championship.
For Lowe, her athletic ambitions are a family affair.
“I was definitely born into a mountain bike family. Both my parents raced and were very connected to the local mountain bike community through Squamish Off-Road Cycling Association (SORCA). In fact, I was brought to my first mountain bike race when I was about a week old,” she told The Squamish Chief while on tour.
“My Dad was organizing the local SORCA toonie races. Eventually, I was old enough to pedal a bike and that’s when I too fell in love with the sport. I’m super competitive so there was no question that I would eventually pick up racing.”
Two of Lowe’s role models are her coach, Olympian Catharine Pendrel, and dual-sport Olympian Clara Hughes — who famously biked across Canada to raise awareness about mental health following a struggle with depression. By developing her physical literacy, Lowe has been able to create a long-term game plan for herself.
When it comes to highlights of her career, she almost has too many to name. One of them was travelling to Germany and Czechia to race in the Junior Series World Cups this past May.
“It was an amazing experience and so different from any other races I’ve competed in. Instead of racing 25 junior girls, there were 85 of us. It was also my first time watching the pros in person. I was very starstruck.”
She would love to emulate her predecessor’s lifestyles and vibe.
“The cherry on the top was in Czechia when I placed 9th along with my teammates who were 7th and 8th. I had a really good race and the course was so much fun. I told my friends I felt like a little kid at a playground.”
