Saya Sakakibara

Born in Queensland, Saya Sakakibara’s BMX journey began at the age of four after following her older brother Kai to a race.

Her family moved from Japan to Sydney in 2007 and, with Kai, she joined the local Southlake Illawarra BMX Club. She had an immediate impact on the junior circuit, winning multiple state and national titles and a silver medal at the junior world championships.

In 2018, Sakakibara made her elite world championship debut at the age of 18, where she finished sixth as the youngest in the field. That year, she also finished second overall in the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup.

In 2019, for the second year in a row, Sakakibara made the final of the world championships, this time placing seventh. A season highlight was taking victory in the official Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event.

2020 started well for Sakakibara, placing second and fourth at the opening World Cup rounds in Shepparton. However, it became a challenging year for several reasons: not only was her Olympic debut delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but Kai suffered a traumatic brain injury in a racing crash, leaving him in a coma for two months. Sakakibara would later take career number #77 in honour of her brother.

In 2021, Sakakibara competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games, where she narrowly missed out on the final due to a crash during the semi-finals, resulting in a concussion.

After a break, she returned to racing at the end of the year to win her first elite national championship, which she has since successfully defended in 2022 and 2023.

2022 was another difficult season as Sakakibara suffered another concussion, bringing her to the edge of retiring from the sport.

However, she returned in 2023 with an outstanding performance in the UCI World Cup, where she won five out of 10 rounds to become the World Cup champion for the first time.

Although she was disappointed to finish eighth at the 2023 UCI World Championships in Glasgow, Sakakibara bounced back with another brilliant World Cup in 2024, defending her overall title after winning four out of six rounds.

She took part in her second Olympic Games at Paris 2024. There, Sakakibara rode a flawless event, winning every quarter-final, semi-final and the final in dominant fashion to become the first Australian to win a gold medal in BMX Racing.