"Dislocating my knee was probably the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. Even now, when I’m watching the rugby or other rough stuff on TV and I see people sustain the same injury, I just can’t look, because I know the pain they’re going through.
“It had been a bit of an accumulation. A while before, I’d got my foot stuck in a cattle grid, and then carried on training. After that, for about three months, I partially dislocated my knee repeatedly. This was 2018, and a period of time in my life where I just couldn’t take a day off – or rather, I couldn’t seem to get the idea into my head to stop and recover from the injury. So, I just kept training, and pushing myself further. Now, when I look back, I realise this wasn’t a great way to deal with it.
I was screaming for someone to help me, I just didn’t know what to do
“After those three months I was OK for a while, so I carried on training the same way, for around eight months. We went to a GB training camp in Girona, Spain, and I was having a really good week. That day I’d done a four-and-a-half hour ride with efforts. I’d also been in the gym, gone for a run and, when I got back, had a massage.
"I was telling the swannie [soigneur, or helper] that it was the best training I’d done in a while, and how amazing it was that nothing had gone wrong. She asked me to roll over onto my front, and as I did that, I felt something slip, and my knee dislocated.
“I was screaming for someone to help me, I just didn’t know what to do. It was pain on a level that I’d never felt in my life before. I was screaming for an ambulance, and the swannie was desperately calling for people to try and help put the knee back in place. It was absolutely horrendous.
"I phoned my parents, filled them in on what had happened and told them I’d be on the next flight home. They thought I was joking and were laughing about it! For the whole flight home I cried, because I was so worried it would happen again. Even at the airport, when I asked for a wheelchair, I could see that they thought I didn’t need one, because I had a bike bag with me.”
Illustration: Kevin February
Words: Steve Thomas
About Evie Richards
Hailing from England's Malvern Hills, Evie is one of Britain's shining stars in the world of cross-country (XC) racing. In 2021, she won the World Championships in Val Di Sole, Italy, earning the right to wear the coveted rainbow stripes on her jersey. She backed this up by bagging the top spot at the final two rounds of the XCO World Cup. Last year she was hampered by a back injury, but Evie looks to be getting back to form ahead of a home World Champs in Scotland later this summer.
