Alise Willoughby takes aim at fourth Olympic Games alongside husband and coach Sam, seven years after "everything we knew changed"

"One of the most successful BMX racers to ever swing her leg over a bike", USA Cycling said of Alise Willoughby.

A three-time Olympian and two-time world champion, Willoughby holds more world medals than any woman in BMX racing history, and she’s vying to grow that collection at the 2023 UCI BMX Racing World Cup.

The 32-year-old American is looking to regain her BMX world dominance on the road to Paris 2024, after going into the Tokyo Games as the reigning world champion and fan favorite, but leaving empty-handed after a devastating fall in the semi-finals.

Here’s a look into what’s coming up for Willoughby, as well as her journey to greatness and the devastating accident that changed the trajectory of her and her husband’s lives forever.

2023 UCI BMX Racing World Cup - Round Five

It’s an ultra-competitive year for the women of BMX racing, as the biggest names line up for 10 rounds of action over five months in hopes of being crowned with the World Cup title.

Held in Sarrians, France on the 23 and 24 September, round five, like the rest in the World Cup, offers riders an opportunity to earn points for their NOCs in the UCI BMX Racing Olympic rankings, which count towards individual Paris 2024 qualification.

• How to qualify for BMX racing at Paris 2024. The Olympics qualification system explained

• UCI Cycling World Championships 2023: BMX Racing preview, full schedule, how to watch live

Just 24 riders per gender will represent their countries next summer in Paris.

Willoughby’s toughest competition will be reigning world champion Laura Smulders as she chases her sixth World Cup title.

Other names that could contest the world champion’s road to gold include Beth Shriever, reigning Olympic champion, and Zoé Claessens, runner-up in the overall standings at the 2022 World Cup and 2022 World Championships.

Fellow Team USA racer Felicia Stancil claimed her first world title in 2022, ahead of Claessens and Smulders, and will be racing amongst the rest in Sarrians.

Alise’s Journey from nervous beginnings to the Olympic Games

Born into a family with BMX–obsessed older brothers and a father who runs a track, Willoughby - formerly Post - was a state champion gymnast and pole vaulter before solely committing to the sport that she now holds two world titles in.

In her very first race she looked down the starting hill and the butterflies in her stomach began to grow — the nerves got the better of her and she totally chickened out.

At that time, she was six years old and went home full of enthusiasm, determined to ensure that moment would never be repeated.

She quickly excelled and became a trailblazer in the sport, being named the first-ever female Rookie Pro of the Year by BMXer Magazine, and the youngest person to win the American Bike Association national title, at just 15 years old — the same year she turned pro.

She spent much of her younger years racing against ‘the boys’ and learning what it meant to be a girl in a male-dominated sport first-hand.

Missing the minimum age cutoff (19) for BMX racing’s inaugural Olympics in 2008, Willoughby worked tirelessly to put herself in the best position for the next time the Games rolled around.

And her hard work paid off.

She went on to compete in the London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics, winning a silver medal in Rio as well as two World Championship golds.

Alise and Sam Willoughby: from devastating accident to one of sport's greatest power couples

“7 years since our lives took a sharp turn…in an instant, everything we knew changed,” Willoughby recently wrote on her Instagram.

She was referring to a career-ending training crash her husband, Sam Willoughby, suffered on 10 September 2016.

Within the span of one month, the Australian two-time BMX world champion and Olympic silver medallist went from a medal contender at Rio 2016 to being paralyzed from the chest down at just 25 years old.

He had run the same track 700 times before, but it was a freak accident at the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, California that changed the lives of the engaged couple forever.

Willoughby, then named Post, was at home in Minnesota about to throw the first pitch for the Minnesota Twins, an MLB team, when she heard the news.

Lying on the hospital bed, Sam recalled telling his fiancé, “You’re not marrying a vegetable.”

Alise's reply was resolute. “You’re not a vegetable and the hell I’m not marrying you. You’re stuck with me.”

The pair first met at the 2008 world championships, as they swapped their Team USA and Australia jerseys and MySpace messages.

He had first set eyes on her watching VHS tapes of her race, sitting at home in Adelaide as a kid analysing her races to improve his own game.

At 17 years old, Sam decided to continue his professional BMX career by moving from Australia to California at the end of 2008, where he would move in with his teenage crush and her parent.

The pair trained and travelled to compete together and both qualified for the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Olympics, with Sam winning silver in the former and Alise a medal of the same color in the latter.

Since the accident, the couple's relationship has continued to grow, and Sam is now Alise’s coach and number one fan.

He worked tirelessly to defy his limitations and walk her down the aisle when the Olympic power couple wed in 2017, just over one year after the accident.

Now, six years later, they remain one of the strongest teams in sport as Alise aims to qualify for her fourth Olympic Games with Sam still "stuck" firmly by her side.