Saya Sakakibara

Saya Sakakibara started BMX racing at just four years old after watching her older brother Kai compete in events.

Born on the Gold Coast, Saya and her family lived in Japan for the first few years of her life – her mother is Japanese – before moving back to Australia when she was six. Saya and Kai joined South Illawarra BMX Club and began competing on the junior circuit.

Saya started to rise through the ranks and was soon winning state and national titles. In 2017 she won silver in the Junior Elite BMX Supercross at the World Championships.

A year later Saya made her senior World Championships debut where she finished in an impressive sixth place. That same year, she was runner up in the overall 2018 World Cup Series.

Her success continued throughout 2019, claiming multiple top-five finishes across the 2019 World Cups, seventh at the 2019 World Championships and gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event.

The six-time national champion made her Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and showed a steely resolve by clawing her way back from a tough start in her quarter-final heats when she ran off the track and finished last in her opening run.

Determined not to let it hold her back on Olympic debut, Saya then finished fourth in her second run before producing a stunning victory in her third race to progress to the semi-finals alongside teammate Lauren Reynolds.

The younger sister of fellow Australian rider Kai, who was seriously injured in a racing crash in 2020 which brought the end of his career, Saya then looked headed for the final when she finished fifth and first in her first two semi-final heats.

But she was cruelly denied a shot at a medal when she crashed out of the third and final run along with American Alise Willoughby, both narrowly missing the final, which was won by Great Britain’s Beth Shriever.

Saya suffered a concussion in the crash and after Tokyo she took an extended break, but returned at the end of 2021 at the national championships on the Gold Coast.

Another injury – another concussion – kept her out of action early in 2022, but she was back in form by the end on the year.

In 2023, Saya won five of the 10 rounds of the UCI BMX Racing World Cup and near-flawless riding in the final two rounds secured her the overall title and world no. 1 ranking.

Holding a lead of just over 100 points going into the final weekend of racing in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, Saya needed to put together a strong performance to take the crown.

She did more than was required, scoring dominant wins in both races to shut the door on her opponents.

Speaking after claiming the title, Saya said she had considered giving up BMX racing after suffering the concussion.

"But I am so happy that I brought out the courage and gave it one more red-hot go and it really paid off,” she said.

Always riding with her brother in mind, Saya now has his no.77 on the front of her bike whenever she races.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Saya was breathtaking on the track despite dealing with COVID throughout the week. She won all three heats in the quarter-finals, all three semi-finals and then the final was her most dominant performance of them all. Showcasing her trademark speed out of the start gate in the final, she took control of the race at the first corner and never gave it up.

With tears streaming down cheeks that could not contain her smile, Saya stepped onto the top step of the podium in Paris as an Olympic champion and Australia's first BMX racing Olympic gold medallist.

It was a special moment for the whole family with Saya’s parents and her brother Kai cheering her on from the stands.

“I’ve run out of tears,” Saya said after the medal ceremony.

“Honestly I’m just so grateful for all the hard experiences that I had since Tokyo and Kai’s accident, because those are the moments that made me really dig deep and find myself with BMX again.

“I just wanted to leave here having enjoyed the experience and having put everything out there, and be able to look back on the videos of my performance and be like ‘yeah I’m proud of that’ and I definitely did.”