She bought her first mountain bike in 1988 at the age of 31 in order to compete in an adventure sport event, and within a year she had become the New Zealand national cross country champion.
In November 1990, she became a household name in New Zealand by winning a 22-day multi-sport race the length of the country that had prime time TV coverage every night.
Lynch competed in road races and time trials, and off-road in cross country, in several world championships.
In 1992, she entered the UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in the veteran category and won bronze in both the cross country and the downhill events.
Aged 39, she was the oldest competitor in the event, but managed to achieve eighth place, leaving two previous world champions behind her.
[6] In 1988, Lynch competed in the inaugural season of the Canoe Slalom World Cup, and placed 19th in the overall standings in the K1 class.
Lynch then borrowed a quality mountain bike and won the third race of the national series that was held in Queenstown with an impressive 11-minute margin.
Towards the end of the year, she competed in a qualifying race for the 1990 Commonwealth Games on a hilly course that "suited [her] perfectly" after her hill training.
[14][15] By the time she went back to mountain biking after the Commonwealth Games to defend her national title, Lynch had already missed the first two of the six rounds.
[16] With this accomplished, Braggins and Lynch travelled to the United States to prepare for the inaugural UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in 1990; prior to this, there were two separate events run by NORBA in the US, and by Grundig in Europe.
Just before the UCI World Championship race, Lynch needed hospital treatment for internal bleeding caused by her pain medication.
The 1990 Xerox Challenge was organised by Robin Judkins as one of the sporting events to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi.
It was by far the hardest; the 22-day multi-sport event covered the length of the country—from Cape Reinga to Bluff—and included road cycling, kayaking, running, and mountain biking.
[18] Fortunately for her, the fellow competitors were stuck in nearby Mākara Beach, waiting for the weather in Cook Strait to settle enough to enable the kayak section.
The event featured every night on prime time TV and by the end of it, the two winners had become household names in New Zealand: Lynch, and Steve Gurney.
[18][19] It was Lynch's hardest race over her entire career[20] and contributes to her being regarded as a "legend" of the New Zealand mountain bikers.
She entered in the Veteran category (women 30+) and came second, beaten by road racing legend Jeannie Longo.
[28] Part of her preparation in both 1991 and 1992 was to race on the New Zealand women's time trial team at the UCI Road World Championships; they came seventh and eighth, respectively.
[31] Her biographer speculates that the selectors were possibly influenced in their decision by Lynch's failure to get Harris into a medal position at the 1990 Commonwealth Games.
[32] Lynch then entered the veteran category of the 1992 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Bromont, Canada, winning bronze in both the cross country and the downhill events.
Rather than go for another veteran's medal, Lynch entered the Pro race at the 1995 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Kirchzarten in Germany's Black Forest.
One by one, younger and full-time professional cyclists went past her, and Lynch ended up 21st, with Mary Grigson 33rd, and the other Kiwis further back.
I just rode off and left them.Two months prior to the Olympics, Lynch went to North America and competed in World Cup races in Canada and the United States.
[37] Once she arrived at the Olympic Village in Atlanta, she was underwhelmed by the support she received from the cycling team; most had never been to a mountain bike event.
Life in the village was unpleasant due to constant security checks, and athletes who had completed their event partying all night.
Whilst this required a two-hour bus ride to the mountain bike venue, it made for a more pleasant stay and sufficient sleep.
She did not go to the 1996 UCI Mountain Bike World Championships in Cairns, Australia, but competed in the Southern Traverse Adventure Race instead.
[20] Lynch moved to near Hokitika in the early 2000s and worked in farming, including clearing 20 hectares (49 acres) of gorse from some farmland.