Izaac Kennedy

Izaac Kennedy was just three years old when his big brother began riding at the local BMX track near their home on Queensland’s Gold Coast – and he just had to join in too.

“My older brother was my inspiration to get on the track,” Izaac said. “When I saw him on his bike, I wanted to do it too. He was seven and I was three, and we’d go to the local track together. Back then, I’d just ride for fun. But by the time I was nine, I’d started racing.”

In fact, Izaac won his first state title as a nine-year-old and finished fourth in his age group at the world championships the same year.

In 2019, Izaac won his first elite men’s national title at the age of 18 and reached the quarter-finals at the world championships. Later that year, he finished on the podium in his first UCI BMX Racing World Cup series event – and did it again in the opening round of the 2020 World Cup series.

Despite suffering a broken hand early in the 2021 season, he finished fourth in his first World Cup event and reached the World Championship final, finishing seventh.

Izaac retained his Australian national title that year, becoming the first back-to-back Australian champion for more than 20 years.

In 2022, Izaac claimed two World Cup podiums, before adding another at Sakarya, in Turkey, in 2023, despite losing his bike and racing gear in transit to the event. His sponsors had to assemble a new bike in France and fly it to the event.

Later that year, a serious crash left Izaac with a broken tibia and serious ligament damage to his left knee, putting him out for the season.

He returned for the first round of the 2024 World Cup series in New Zealand and won the third round in Brisbane in February. He subsequently clinched the overall World Cup title with two second places in Tulsa, in the United States, in April.

But injury struck Izaac again in May 2024, this time a broken wrist while training, which ruled him out of the world championships and put his availability for the Paris Olympics in doubt. After surgery the hope was Izaac was going to be ready for the Olympics and the 23-year-old is set to compete at Paris 2024.