Alise Willoughby: Reigning BMX racing world champion gears up for fourth Olympic Games at Paris 2024
One month before American BMX racing star Alise Willoughby won it all at the 2024 World Championships, she sat down with Olympics.com in New York to declare: “I’m still at the top of my game.”
And the 33-year-old proved exactly that in Rock Hill, South Carolina, when she cruised to the gold medal for her third world title, little more than two months ahead of the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
Now, she is gearing up for her fourth Olympic Games, when she will attempt to avenge her uncharacteristically early exit at Tokyo 2020 and finally land on top of that podium, as “the most experienced [she’s] ever been”.
Alise Willoughby (#1) during the Women's BMX quarterfinal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)
Alise Willoughby’s success in the face of tragedy
After a minor hiccup in her first race at six years old when her nerves got the best of her and she ‘chickened out’ at the top of the track, Willoughby has produced nothing short of greatness since becoming the first women ever voted Rookie Pro of the Year by BMXer Magazine at 15 years old.
Six years later, she was finally at the age where she was eligible to compete at the Olympic Games, and made her debut at London 2012.
After taking 12th place, she continued to move up in the ranks of her sport, winning her third BMX Women’s Pro Series title in 2014, but suffered a major blow in the same year, losing her mother Cheryl to late-stage melanoma cancer.
But it was Cheryl who once told her daughter to “never, ever give up”, according to USA Cycling, and those are words that Willoughby has hung on to ever since, still going strong an entire decade after her mother’s passing.
Fast forward two more years, and Willoughby made her second Olympic appearance at Rio 2016, where she took the silver medal, falling only to the most decorated female of all time in her sport - Mariana Pajón.
But tragedy struck once again, and less than one month after she stood on the Olympic podium, her then-boyfriend and Olympic silver medalist Sam Willoughby suffered a freak BMX accident that left him paralyzed from the chest down.
“All those things,” Willoughby said to Olympics.com this April, speaking about the two events, “have grown and shaped me, and pre-Rio or pre-Tokyo, I don’t know that I would have ever thought that I could handle all this.
I’m more tough, resilient and happier than I’ve ever been.
Since then, the two were married and Sam has stepped into the role of Willoughby’s coach, where they have together dominated three World Championships - 2017, 2018 and 2024.
She also seems to have developed a deep sense of wisdom through her years of success in the face of tragedy, explaining that “post a failure or a loss... the sun is going to come up tomorrow and you can only control how much you smile on the day”.
Alise Willoughby: “I'm still at the top of my game”
Going into Tokyo 2020, Willoughby was the favorite to win gold.
She had just come off a silver medal at the previous Games, as well as two World Championship wins in 2017 and 2018.
But the stars weren’t aligned for the three-time Olympian and she suffered a devastating fall in the semifinals, leaving her out of medal contention and therefore, leaving Tokyo empty-handed.
“I was in great shape,” she said, “but it just really wasn’t my day that day. It just didn’t go to plan.”
“That happens sometimes in racing. You know, bad day, tough day at the track.”
Looking to regain her dominance in Paris, Willoughby is already on a steady path, having dominated the 2024 World Championships against world-class riders Zoe Claessens and Laura Smulders, the latter of which she will also face in Paris.
“In this three-year span,” she said, referencing the time passed from Tokyo to now, “I’ve proven to myself and those around me that I’m still at the top of my game.”
“I’m just trying to grow with age… so I just feel like I’m the most experienced I’ve ever been. And probably the most well rounded and just excited for the opportunity to go for a fourth Games in a sport that it’s really hard to stay consistent at.
“So longevity has been on my side.”
Willoughby will begin racing on 1 August with the women’s quarterfinals, with the finals being staged the following day. Click here for the full BMX racing schedule at Paris 2024.