Melissa Mankowski

In 1993, Melissa Mankowski and her family travelled more than 2000 kilometres from the small coal mining town of Middlemount, central Queensland to South Australia to compete at her first BMX National Championships. That weekend Melissa won the national number one plate, in the Under-5 Girls class. Little did Melissa’s unsuspecting family, or the international BMX racing community realise, that this was to be the beginning of a truly stellar BMX career that would see Melissa win an unprecedented 18 national or world #1 plates over the next 17 years.

Between 1997 and 2004, Melissa dominated her opposition, reigning supreme as national champion for eight consecutive years. Seven times in this same period she travelled the globe to the UCI World Championships and six times she returned as world champion.  Adding to her impressive resume at this time, she also turned her hand to cruiser class racing for additional competition against the boys. On two occasions, Melissa walked away with the #2 Australian plate against the boys, much to the frustration and disbelief of her male rivals at the finish line.

Melissa proudly recalls one of her greatest racing achievements from Louisville in Kentucky, United States, in 2001.  After claiming world titles in 1997, 1998 and 1999, Melissa decided not to travel to Argentina for Worlds in 2000.  In Louisville, Melissa again scaled the highest pinnacle in our sport, reasserting herself as the premier 13-year-old female BMX racer on the planet. Melissa rates reclaiming her world title against the best in America and the world amongst her finest victories.

As Melissa progressed in the elite women’s ranks alongside good friends and fierce rivals Nicole Callisto and Tanya Bailey, she continued to claim further Australian and world honours, including another Australian #1 title in 2008, in the elite women’s class. 

By any standard, Melissa is the most dominant rider of her generation. While she preferred her trademark #65 race plate, there has never been a racer from Australia who has been more successful in winning more national and world #1 plates than Melissa. Her presence as a thoroughly professional, fiercely competitive racer on the world’s stage makes the Queensland country town product an outstanding and thoroughly worthy inductee into the Australian BMX Hall of Fame.