Education
She attended Poynton High School, also attended by para-cyclist Sarah Storey.
She attended Poynton High School, also attended by para-cyclist Sarah Storey.
In April 2014, she set world records in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial, piloted by James. Thornhill comes from Poynton near Stockport in Cheshire. She has only 7–9% vision owing to oculocutaneous albinism, which causes visual impairment.
Thornhill started racing as an adult in May 2013, aged 17.
She races as the stoker on the back of a tandem, with the front position occupied by a pilot with normal vision. In September 2013 she switched to the Welsh cyclist Rachel James as her pilot.
Her first major international competition was the UCI Para-cycling Track World Championships in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in April 2014. They also broke the world record in the qualifying round of the sprint with a flying start time over 200 metres of 10.854 seconds.
As James was competing for the Welsh team, Thornhill returned to Scott as her pilot to compete in the tandem sprint and 1 km time trial events.
They set the Commonwealth record during qualification, with a time of 11.277 seconds. They beat silver medallists McGlynn and Haston by more than 1.5 seconds. Sarah Storey commented: "They had a superbly executed start – they have worked so hard on that aspect of their training – and with the turbo intervals they have done they were able to bring it home strongly.".