Interview: Jenn Jackson shifts perspective and focuses forward
Can a season of "breathroughs and near miss moments" lead to a big result?

Ask any pro, in any sport, and they’ll tell you that racing is as much about mental strength as it is about physical ability. It’s a well-proven argument at this point but one that keeps proving true. For Jenn Jackson, a mental shift helped lead to a third elite national championship and a new perspective on the rest of the season.
Jackson has, by all accounts, been having an incredible 2024 season. At both the opening World Cup rounds in Brazil, she was fighting alongside the world’s best. While those efforts didn’t lead to results, in part due to mechanical misfortune, this season’s seen the Canadian national champ not only find footing, but look comfortable on the front of a World Cup race.
“Up til Crans Montana, I’d ridden more laps inside the Top 12 than outside this year,” Jackson says, adding, “Short tracks have been awesome, I’ve been first or second row in more than half the races, and haven’t missed out on a call-up this season.”
But, without the finish line results to reflect those impressive gains, Jackson missed out on one of her major goals this year: Olympic selection. She calls the non-selection “disappointing, but not surprising,” adding “I know the criteria, but I did have some hope that my 12th in MSA would be considered conditionally especially after how well I raced at the start of the season in Brazil.”
Chasing championships in Kentville
That setback saw the Liv Factory Racing rider land on the east coast for nationals at Kentville, N.S., on the back foot despite being in the best form of her career.
“By the time we got to Nationals I was mostly in “let’s get the job done” mode,” Jackson admits. “After last year, I felt like it was my race to lose, and had a lot of negative thoughts in the week leading up about all the ways things could not go my way.”
The amazing thing about the mental side of the sport, though, is that sometimes all it takes is one converstion to shift perspective, and find speed.
“I had a really good talk with my brother, who helped me reframe things to see that there’s a million ways things can go wrong,” sahs Jackson, “But I already have the upper hand if I believe I’m the strongest and the other girls need to get lucky or do something special to come out ahead – that I just need to show up, be calm and be confident.”
Jackson carried that confidence to a win in the elite women’s short track championships and, then, earning the second of back-to-back elite women’s XCO titles in Kentville, N.S. It’s her third elite women’s title.
While Jackson says the win wasn’t quite as emotional as her first win in 2021 or her 2023 XCO title, the third win carried a different kind of meanaing.
“It wasn’t quite the same emotions. More relief and affirmation of who I am and what I’m capable of,” Jackson says, adding “There aren’t many women whose names appear three or more times on the history of National Championships, I’m proud to be amongst them.”

Carrying the maple leaf forward
The nationals wins also come with another advantage, and potential mental boost that will last beyond this year.
“It means I get to look forward to wearing the maple leaf for the remainder of this season and into the next! It’ll be especially cool to race both XCC and XCO in Mont Sainte Anne with the jersey, hopefully I can give everyone something to cheer for like last year,” says Jackson, who finished 12th in the XCO at MSA in 2023.
Jackson spoke with us over e-mail while on her flight back to Europe for the 2024 mountain bike world championships. There, she’ll try turn a year of “breakthrough and near miss moments” into a result that feels more tangible on a results sheet. She’ll be joined by Emilly Johnston and Sandra Walter, her podium companions in the elite women’s XCO, as part of the 47-rider Canadian delegation racing in Andorra.
“I’m looking forward to being around them both, as well as the rest of the Canadian U23 and Junior Women at World Championships this year.”
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