As a world champion biker, Gee Atherton is used to hurtling down some of the biggest and most dangerous mountains in the world. But last summer, he found himself at the bottom of one, both literally and figuratively, after a horrific crash left him with life-threatening injuries that also threatened to bring an end to a career of more than 20 years.
Gee, who specialises in downhill racing, was filming for a new project near Dinas Mawddwy in Snowdonia in June 2021 when disaster struck. As part of a new series, he was set to take on a steep, rocky mountain ridgeline complete with huge jumps, sheer drops and zero room for error.
Unfortunately for the now-37-year-old, an error, albeit small, is exactly what he made. A moment's miscalculation saw him come off his bike and tumble hundreds of feet down the mountain ridge, bouncing off sharp rocks like a rag doll before finally coming to a stop, unconscious, at the bottom of a slate outcrop.
