Jessica Varnish was born in Bromsgrove, Worcestershire on 19 November 1990, the daughter of James "Jim" Varnish, a keen cyclist. She attended South Bromsgrove High School. Jess represented Bromsgrove Swimming Club. At the age of 14, Varnish competed unofficially at the 2006 Junior World Championships in Belgium. She took a second off the British 500m standing start record, setting a new time of 37.1 seconds. She made her GB Cycling debut at the Austrian Junior International in January 2006. She became a member of British Cycling's Olympic Development Programme whilst still a junior. Being just 17 at the time, Varnish was selected for the programme a year ahead of the rest of her age group, demonstrating British Cycling's belief in her potential. Her first performance at senior level was in the 2008 UCI Track Cycling World Championships in Manchester. In March 2009, Varnish was awarded the "junior female sports personality of the year" trophy at the Sports Partnership Herefordshire and Worcestershire Sports Awards. Virgin Trains West Coast named its Pendolino train 390027 after her on 29 June 2011. On 18 February, Varnish competed at the 2012 UCI Track Cycling World Cup in the new Olympic Velodrome. Along with her team-mate Victoria Pendleton, they broke the world record of the women's team sprint taking gold. At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Varnish and Pendleton broke the world record in the qualifying stages of the team sprint before being relegated in the semi-finals. In April 2016The Daily Telegraph reported that Varnish's Olympic Podium Programme contract with British Cycling had not been renewed, with Performance Director Shane Sutton stating that the decision was due to Varnish's performances over the previous three years, and denying that it was related to comments she had made in interviews at the 2016 UCI Track Cycling World Championships which were critical of the selections that had been made for the women's team sprint squad in their qualifying campaign for the 2016 Summer Olympics, which was ultimately unsuccessful. Varnish claimed in the two year Olympic qualifying period she had gained more qualifying points than any other British cyclist, in the team sprint she had consistently performed in the world top 5 and also qualified for the Olympic places in individual sprint and Keirin. In a subsequent interview with the Daily Mail, Varnish made allegations that Sutton had made sexist comments when discussing the non-renewal of her contract. In April 2016 Sutton was suspended by British Cycling, and he immediately resigned rather than mounting a defence.
