Year: 2022
Award: Mountain Biking
Location/Affiliation: Columbine High School
- Colorado H.S. Mountain Bike Champion
- National Champion in Cyclocross
- 7-time age group National Champion
Question. Does cycling around steep curves, up and down hills, over tree roots, across mud or even snow, and sometimes running with your bike instead of riding it sound like fun to you?
That sport’s called cyclocross, and to Columbine High School freshman Kira Mullins, it’s a blast! So is mountain biking. And she’s really, really good at both. Kira is so good that she won the first cylocross race she ever entered…when she was just seven years old!
Fast forward to 2022 and her first high school mountain bike race. Kira was racing JV with all the other freshman. But, when she won by almost ten minutes, they decided to bend the rules and bump her up to varsity. The outcome? Kira became the first freshman to win the high school mountain biking state championship!
On the national level, against older riders, Mullins brought home a 2022 USA Cycling Junior Cyclocross National Championship, giving her a combined total of seven cyclocross and mountain biking national titles…all by the time she was 14!
Better remember the name! Kira Mullins, our honoree in mountain biking.
By Marcia Nevile, Former Sports Broadcaster, 2-Time SWOC Honoree
