Bike
BMX
How Saya Sakakibara won the biggest BMX race of her life
After bringing a gold medal home from Paris, the Australian rider reflects on the beginnings of her career, why she chose the sport, her daily routines and how she overcomes fear.
Riding down the street is hard enough for some people, let alone showing the skill, power and split-second reactions needed at the top level of BMX racing that Australian rider Saya Sakakibara has honed to near perfection.
While some might have the preconceived idea that a BMX race wouldn't be that hard, you'd be well and truly floored at the numbers involved when taking a glance at what goes down from the start gate to the finish line.
A typical BMX race track (often called a pump track) is anywhere from 350m to 450m long with eight riders completing a lap in as little as 30-40 seconds at the sport's top level.
BMX Racing is just everything all in one and I think it's so exciting!
"It captures the whole of the physical, the human body with speed, agility, the tactical, skill and reaction time. It's just everything all in one and I think it's so exciting!" she explains.
Even before hitting the actual track, riders must conquer one crucial task, to propel themselves from a standstill at the start gate to a maximum speed of 50kph as quickly as possible, giving themself the best position to navigate the twists and turns ahead of the pack.
The start gate? Oh yeah, a hefty metal ledge that all eight riders balance on (with their front tyre) while they wait for a 'random' drop to start the race.
It's a real, blink-and-you-missed-it sport where so much happens in such a short time.
Saya Sakakibara on the track
© Red Bull
01
Why BMX?
Saya Sakakibara's introduction to BMX was - like many other athletes out there - because someone in the family obsessed over the sport.
"I started BMX because of my older brother Kai," she explains. "He was absolutely obsessed with BMX. And for me as a younger sister, I looked up to him so much and I just wanted to copy everything that he was doing."
This all happened around the age of four and did initially see a false start, with the superstar rider temporarily hating the sport. Her love for her brother once again shone through though, and she picked up her bike months later and it all started falling into place.
"What I love about BMX is just how challenging it is," she says. "It's so mentally and physically demanding just right from the start. It's eight people in the gate going through a 350m to 450m course, that's over in 30 to 40 seconds and everyone's going for that number one spot and it's super exciting.
From age four to graduating high school it was non-stop practice on the bike alongside Kai, which took them around the globe on the world circuit. It was at this stage that Saya thought to herself, that this could be a full-time profession and set her sights on the top.
In the following years, she rose to the top of the women's circuit at home and her feats extended to global competitions with podium finishes in 2019 through to 2023.
02
From heartbreak to a new perspective
But her world got turned upside down when Kai suffered a life-altering brain injury in 2020 during a World Cup event in Australia. This devastating event shook the entire family, and ended the shared ambition of the two siblings competing together in Paris.
Through this turbulent time, when Kai's family was focused on every step and milestone of his recovery, Saya found strength in his brother’s amazing determination and resilience, using his experience as a major source of motivation to push herself towards Paris and channel her energy into training, “If he’s not going to the Olympics, then I am. And I’m going to do it for the both of us,” she said.
Kai’s ongoing recovery and his role as her biggest supporter fuelled Saya’s drive to race not just for herself, but for the dream they'd once had together. Follow the emotional journey in the documentary, Saya Sakakibara: Ride to Redemption, on Red Bull TV.
46 min
Saya Sakakibara: Ride to Redemption
After her brother’s injury, BMX athlete Saya Sakakibara pushes for success on her road to Paris.
Skip forward to 2024 and the Gold Coast native won the biggest race of her life, leading home a stacked final field in Paris to claim the winner-takes-all gold medal on the biggest sporting stage in the world.
Saya Sakakibara ready for the track!
© Red Bull
What I love about BMX is just how challenging it is
03
Saya's approach to facing fear and anxiety
No one is immune from anxiety or fear, not even the best of the best. That's the lure of sports in general for both punters and participants, to overcome the impossible!
Saya talks candidly about the feelings she has at the start line: "I definitely feel fear when I do it. When I'm at the top of the hill ready to race, my heart is pounding. And yeah, there is that element of fear because as you don't know what's going to happen, I could crash, I could bump into other people, I could win, I could not win. And I think that's really exciting."
I definitely feel fear when I do it. When I'm at the top of the hill ready to race, my heart is pounding
It's almost unsurprising that fear can turn into a strength, and that fear can become the most important tool over you have over your competitors. Saya explains how this has worked for her in practice: "I think my strengths kind of changed season to season, and for this year, for sure, my strength was definitely my mental side. I was able to be consistent every time I got onto the gate and and make the least mistakes on the track as well, as well as being able to get on the gate and do my best every time."
Hear Saya open up about fear in the Mind Set Win podcast:
04
Two non-negotiables of Saya's winning routine
It doesn't matter what you do, be it sports or daily life, you'll hear the same thing… routine is the reward.
The idea is simple, all the relatively small things you do in life add up and while each might seem piecemeal, the entire thing, when put together, equals a big piece of the pie and can mean the difference between first and second place.
For Sakakibara there's two non-negotiables. The first is a cold shower daily: "I do so many small things daily that add up to make a big difference in the long run. One of those things is a cold shower in the morning. Sometimes I wake up and I feel a bit anxious about the day, especially on race days and things like that. But once I get in that cold shower, I'm just like, 'Oh, it's fine, I can do this, I can do this', and it's not so bad. So I feel like that makes a big difference to start off the day.
The other is prioritising recovery and making sure the body she has at the start line is in the best possible position to win: "So when I'm lining up at the top of the start hill, I can just be confident in what I've done and be able to trust myself in that moment, even if they feel insignificant. I think it's really important to do those things well. So in those tough moments, I can just trust myself."
In those tough moments, I can just trust myself
Saya Sakakibara gets her game face on
© Red Bull
05
Bouncing back from injury
It hasn't all been smooth sailing for Sakakibara with injuries, some quite serious, scattered throughout her career. They've ranged from crashes to a full-blown half-hour concussion that forced her to second-guess her career.
She explains: "I sometimes think about how it's too early for me to experience fear like a lot of people experience fear, like towards the end of their BMX careers when they're sick of crashing… of injuries and things like that. But I started to feel it in 2019 where there was probably a period of two months where I crashed on the first jump like three, four times. And then the last one… I had a concussion and there was such a huge journey to get back to being able to be confident."
There was such a huge journey to get back to being able to be confident
Part of the return to the track was taking stock of things and realising that injuries and the lows aren't a choice, but part and parcel of being a professional athlete. The good thing is, the highs that come from pushing through, training and recovery far outweigh them.
