2022 Pinkbike Awards: Comeback of the Year Winner
Comeback of the Year Winner
Injuries are nothing to glorify, but the mental and physical fortitude to come back from them and return to the top flight of racing is always worth recognition. And the winner of the 2022 Comeback of the Year Award is...
Why she's the winner
Choosing the winner of the comeback award was one of the hardest decisions this year as we had many deserving athletes come back from injury to achieve huge things in 2022. But for us, one rider's comeback stood above the rest and that was Camille Balanche's. Camille defied the odds for her comeback from a broken collarbone in Mont-Sainte-Anne, managing to cling onto the overall and place fourth at World Champs.
To crash mid-season while in the best form of your career so far would be the season's end for most World Cup riders, but Camille Balanche fought through the impossible to recover in an extraordinarily short time. Camille not only returned to racing but still placed at the sharp end of racing and won the overall title. Many thought Camille's season and chances of an overall title were over after Mont-Sainte-Anne but she proved the doubters wrong.
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Just my opinion though…
Cami is cute, wholesome, and has a winning personality.
Gee is, well, he’s Gee
Add to it his only race since the crash was Hardline 2022, and he stomped down a 5th place.
Props to Cami nonetheless, I think she is more than deserving of this award for racing through her injury. She did not win because of being a woman @mrift04 @sanchofula , she won because that takes a lot of f*cking grit. It literally hurts to ride every second with a freshly broken collarbone.
Cami's comeback was tied up with a really exciting battle for the world cup overall and her awesome underdog story. Gee's comeback didn't necessarily have that same sense of high drama that played out over the course of only a few weeks, but there's no question his crash and injuries were more horrific and him coming back at all was a staggering feat.
Both are winners in my book.
This feels a bit “because it’s a girl” and because it was girls DH racing.
A collarbone sucks, but it’s a sprain compared to what TVS and Gee went through.
I'll admit I wanted Gee to win, but bringing Cami's gender into the equation is unwarranted, especially considering no male WC racer has ever done what she did this season. There is no precedent for either of their accomplishments, stop using gender as an excuse.
Coming back so soon from surgery on a broken collarbone is something in itself, but to comeback and be competitive makes it pretty special.
We’ve seen how talented, fast and consistent a rider, Cami is, but there’s no doubt that she’s also fully committed and determined, too.
Definitely deserving of this award.
Nazi!