Dan Atherton is a professional cyclist who specializes in four cross and downhill mountain bike racing. Dan Atherton was born as Daniel Simon Atherton on 25 January, 1982, near Salisbury which is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England. He began riding BMX at the age of 15. A year later at the age of 16 he began mountain biking. Alongside his brother Gee and sister Rachel, Dan Atherton makes up a third of the Animal Commençal racing team since 2007.

Some of Atherton's best finishes were in four cross mountain biking. In 2004, he came in first in the British National Mountain Biking Championships. Another impressive finish occurred as he finished first in the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup, in Vallnord, Andorra, in 2008. One of his most recent finishes occurred at a downhill event at Santa Marta Favela in Rio de Janeiro, where Atherton finished third in the Red Bull Desafio no Morro.