Brandon
Semenuk
Canada
·
MTB
Date of birth | 2 February 1991 |
|---|---|
Place of birth | Whistler, BC |
Age | 35 |
Nationality | Canada |
Discipline | Mountainbike Freeride/Slopestyle |
Growing up in the mountain bike paradise of Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, there was no way Brandon Semenuk was not going to learn how to ride a mountain bike at a young age.
His older brother got him into the sport when Semenuk was just six years old and, by age nine, he started entering cross-country races on the BC circuit. Competing in his first BC Cup race aged just nine, it didn’t take long for Semenuk to dominate the cross-country circuit – and quickly burn out on the race scene.
By the time he turned 14, Semenuk discovered the world of freestyle mountain biking – jumps, tricks and, most importantly, fewer rules and regulations. At that point, he transitioned over to freeriding and the rest is history.
Success comes quickly
In 2011 and 2012, he won the Freeride Mountain Bike World Tour overall title (earning six wins on the tour in 2012 alone) and he scored a silver medal at the X Games debut of slopestyle mountain biking in Germany in 2013. He also took the win at his first Red Bull Rampage appearance in 2008, aged just 17.
In between his busy contest schedule, Semenuk somehow made time to film groundbreaking video segments, teaming up with Red Bull to create his YouTube series Life Behind Bars, which followed him on his trips around the world and riding on his own home turf. The series was an instant success, so much so that when Semenuk took time off from contests in 2013, he joined forces with Freeride Entertainment and Red Bull Media House to collaborate on an even bigger film project: a full-length movie called Rad Company, released in 2014. The feature film followed Semenuk, as well as fellow riders Cam Zink, Graham Agassiz, Cam McCaul, Stevie Smith, Thomas Genon, Ryan Howard, Yannick Granieri and others on travels from British Columbia to Utah and beyond.
“I definitely enjoy filming and coming up with concepts,” Semenuk says. “I wanted to create something that hasn't been around, a really progressive film that focuses on the riding.”
It was back to competing after that and the overall title of the FMB World Tour quickly followed, opening the door to even more future achievements, including victory at Red Bull Joyride in 2015 and the season-opening slopestyle contest at Crankworx Rotorua in March 2016.
Pushing mountain biking on film
Since then, Semenuk has slowly transitioned away from regular competition, focusing more on film parts. Like his transition away from cross-country into freeride, moving away from competition has allowed Semenuk the freedom to express himself how he likes, like in his 2015 viral one-shot clip from Teton Gravity Research's award-winning unReal.
More recently, Semenuk has focused on his own production company, Revel Co., producing groundbreaking shorts and films such as Revel in the Chaos, a full-length film showcasing Semenuk’s otherworldly riding abilities. Along with his own production company, Semenuk’s Raw 100 videos with Red Bull have always moved the needle, drawing millions of viewers at each release.
While focusing heavily on filming has taken over much of Semenuk's free time, he still makes a few cameos on the competition scene, winning Red Bull Rampage in 2016, 2019, 2021 (with a truly ground-breaking run) and 2024. Combined with his first victory in 2008, that made him the first-ever five-time winner of mountain biking's gnarliest event.
From mountain bikes to rally cars
If being the most successful Crankworx athlete of all time and having his own production company wasn't enough, Semenuk has also been competing in rallying events since 2010. During that time he's notched up numerous overall Canadian Rally Championship (CRC) event wins and North American Rally Cup (NARC) titles.
He joined Subaru Motorsports USA for the 2020 American Rally Association series season and went on to establish himself as one of the leading drivers in US rallying. Semenuk claimed his first ARA National Championship in 2022 before successfully defending the title in 2023 and 2024.
In 2025, Semenuk and co-driver Keaton Williams made it four consecutive ARA National Championship titles, wrapping up the championship at the Ojibwe Forests Rally with two rounds still remaining.
Rather than defend his crown again in 2026, Semenuk switched his focus to Europe in pursuit of a new challenge and a potential pathway towards the World Rally Championship.