{"id":95197,"date":"2019-03-11T19:13:30","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T01:13:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/maddie-jo-robbins-up-for-sportswoman-of-colorado\/"},"modified":"2019-03-11T19:13:30","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T01:13:30","slug":"maddie-jo-robbins-up-for-sportswoman-of-colorado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/maddie-jo-robbins-up-for-sportswoman-of-colorado\/","title":{"rendered":"Maddie Jo Robbins up for Sportswoman of Colorado"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango\u2019s
Durango\u2019s Maddie Jo Robbins raced at the mountain bike world championships despite a wrist injury she had nursed since July. She didn\u2019t let the injury or the 416 Fire derail her standout season. All of her accomplishments led to her being recognized by the Sportswomen of Colorado board of directors.<\/span>Courtesy of Lucas Robbins<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Madeline Robbins wouldn\u2019t let an injury or a fire slow down her 2018 mountain bike season. She rode all the way into the world championships and turned heads along the way.<\/p>\n

Robbins, better known as Maddie Jo, was nominated by Durango High School and selected by Sportswomen of Colorado\u2019s<\/a> board of directors for her outstanding achievement in mountain biking. She will be honored Sunday at the Denver Marriott Tech Center as one of 40 women to be recognized by Sportswomen of Colorado for the 2018 year<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pretty excited for this unique opportunity,\u201d Robbins said. \u201cI\u2019m stoked to see everyone else and all the other winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I initially got the email from the Sportswomen association, it surprised me. It\u2019s cool that even though I\u2019ve been injured that there\u2019s still people out there advocating for me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbins, who was named the 2017-18 Durango Herald<\/em> Female Athlete of the Year, had a standout 2018 season after she won the high school mountain bike state championship in 2017. She won the junior women\u2019s 18-and-under cross-country mountain bike national championship despite a torn scaphoid ligament in her left wrist that impaired the use of her thumb. Still, she powered through the injury to compete at nationals and eventually the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Switzerland, where she placed 34th after an early crash sent her back from sixth place. Earlier that year, she also placed first at a UCI junior series cross-country mountain bike race in Utah.<\/p>\n

She was selected by USA Cycling to compete in three Canada Cup events, where she made the podium in all three races.<\/p>\n

Earlier in 2018, Robbins also placed fourth in the girls giant slalom and slalom alpine ski races at the Colorado High School Activities Association State Championships.<\/p>\n

Though Robbins wasn\u2019t able to compete during the 2018 high school cycling league races or during alpine ski season after tendon graft surgery left her with three screws and a pin in her wrist, her body of achievements made her a standout candidate for the Sportswomen of Colorado award.<\/p>\n

\"Maddie
Maddie Jo Robbins was selected by USA Cycling for three 2018 Canada Cup races, and she earned two third-place finishes and one fifth to get on the podium of every event.<\/span>Courtesy of Madeline Robbins<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cMaddie Jo is the type of student athlete you love having in your program,\u201d DHS athletic director Adam Bright said. \u201cShe goes about her work in a manner in which she puts all she has into everything she does. She may seem quiet, but it might just be because she is examining your game and looking for your weakness.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have loved watching her compete and look forward to watching her get the recognition she undoubtedly deserves Sunday evening in Denver. To be at an awards banquet that has Olympians, professional, college and high school athletes and to see one of our own from Durango High School share the stage with someone like Lindsey Vonn is absolutely outstanding and well deserved for Maddie Jo.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Robbins battled the injury, she also had to do much of her training indoors during the 416 Fire that closed trails and created dangerous air quality during the summer. All of the adversity didn\u2019t prevent her from being at her best when it mattered most.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been an incredible year of learning,\u201d she said. \u201cWith the injury and the fire, there were always obstacles in the way. I learned, physically and mentally, how to push through that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the injury, it happened late enough in the year that I was still able to accomplish my goals. With the fire, that was pretty intense. We had to evacuate and were staying at someone else\u2019s house. I also have a weird smoke allergy, and that made it super hard, too. If I rode my bike, I would do more damage than good. It was hard to figure out training without being able to ride a bunch in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robbins is one of three cyclists who will be honored along with cyclocross star Katie Compton of Colorado Springs and ultra-distance cyclist Julie Lyons.<\/p>\n

\"Maddie
Maddie Jo Robbins was as high as sixth place at the world championships before contact from another rider took her out.<\/span>Courtesy of Lucas Robbins<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Twelve special awards also will be handed out Sunday, highlighted by Becky Hammon, the assistant coach of the San Antonio Spurs, receiving the Dorothy Mauk Pioneer Award. The former Colorado State and WNBA standout has received interviews to be a head coach in the NBA. Lindsey Vonn also will receive the perseverance award.<\/p>\n

Robbins is among the women who could be named as the Sportswoman of the Year, an honor won last year by star skier Mikaela Shiffrin for the third time in her career.<\/p>\n

Sunday is the 45th Sportswomen of Colorado awards celebration. Robbins said she is eager to meet the other women and was honored to be nominated despite being from a non-traditional team sports background.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thankful to know that they pay attention to sports that aren\u2019t typical high school sports and that they care about it,\u201d she said. \u201cI appreciate that people still advocated for me though mountain biking is not a traditional sport. It shows Durango has more to it and that people recognize that.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing one of the younger people there, it\u2019s going to be cool to learn from the other women and hear their wisdom and just learn how the pros manage to get to the top of their game and stay there for so long and keep the joy of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

jlivingston@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Sportswomen of the Year<\/h4>\n

Francessca Belibi, Basketball, High School
\n Savannah Smith, Basketball, College
\n Riley Ljungdahl, Basketball, High School and Paralympics
\n Naomi Melissa Graham, Boxing
\n Jenna Fitzsimmons, Cross Country, High School
\n Dani Jones, Cross Country, College
\n Katie Compton, Cyclocross
\n Haley Smith, Equestrian Vaulting
\n Alexa Knierim, Figure Skating, Olympics
\n Hailey Schalk, Golf, High School
\n Robyn Choi, Golf, College
\n Amber Boll, Gymnastics, High School
\n Anna Hall, Heptathlon
\n Grace Jingyu Lee, Ice Hockey, High School and Olympic
\n Sydney Kennett, Indoor Skydiving
\n Lauren Russell, Lacrosse, High School, US Lacrosse
\n Julia Lisella, Lacrosse, College
\n Maddie Jo Robbins, Mountain Biking
\n Stacie Wilhelm, Roller Derby
\n Emmie Sellers, Shooting Sports
\n Amelia Smart, Skiing (Alpine), College
\n Megan Rielly, Skiing, Freeride
\n Kiana Baursa, Skimeister, High School
\n Stacey Gaskill, Snowboard
\n Arielle Gold, Snowboard, Halfpipe, Olympics, Professional
\n Hailey Stodden, Soccer, High School
\n Mariel Gutierrez, Soccer, College
\n Lauren Krings, Softball, High School
\n Brooke Hodgson, Softball, College
\n Zoe Bartel, Swimming, High School
\n Ky Ecton, Tennis, High School
\n Alexandra Weil, Tennis, College
\n Beatriz Hatz, Track, High School\/Paralympics
\n Arria Minor, Track, Sprints, High School
\n Christel Donley, Track and Field, Masters
\n Megan Kimmel, Trail Running
\n Julie Lyons, Ultra Distance Cycling
\n Courtney Dauwalter, Ultra Distance Running
\n McKenna Sciacca, Volleyball, High School
\n Jordyn Poulter, Volleyball, College
\n Special Awards
\n University of Colorado Lacrosse, Achievement
\n Claudia Dillion, All-Round
\n Caryl Smith Gilbert, Coach of the Year
\n Kasey Neubert, Comeback
\n Linda Hughes, Empowerment
\n Lucy Lu, Most Promising
\n Lindsey Vonn, Perseverance
\n Becky Hammon, Dorothy Mauk Pioneer Award
\n Katherine Fankhouser, Sportsmanship
\n Kit Carson Basketball and Volleyball, Team, High School
\n University of Colorado Cross Country, Team, College
\n Ana Karina Manta, Trailblazer<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Robbins one of 40 women selected for annual ceremony<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95198,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5770],"tags":[657,592,13,977,2343],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-high-school-sports","tag-cycling","tag-durango-high-school","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-mountain-biking","tag-sports-group"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95197","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95197"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95197\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95197"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95197"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95197"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95197"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}