Aussie BMX freestyler Sarah Nicki: "Unreal" to be competing at Olympic Qualifier Series
The two-time Australian national champion, who recently turned 17, hopes to qualify for Paris 2024 but has her sights set longer-term.
Cycling BMX Freestyle
At 17 years old, Sarah Nicki hopes to be the next global name in BMX freestyle cycling.
Already a two-time Australian national champion in 2022 and 2023, Nicki has now turned her sights on the upcoming Olympic Qualifier Series in Shanghai and Budapest, her final chance to obtain an Olympic quota for Paris 2024.*
And yet, this was never really the plan. Speaking to the Olympics.com Podcast, Nicki says: "Going to the Olympic Qualifier (Series), I find it unreal that that's what's happening, you know.
"I don't think I've had any dreams [of] Paris, but I've definitely been at the Olympics in my dreams."
Australia is no stranger to producing good BMX freestylers – Logan Martin won the discipline's inaugural Olympic gold medal at Tokyo 2020. So how will Nicki stand out from the crowd?
"I like to just tweak my riding style a little bit," she says of not just performing standard tricks. "Make it more like you watch and you're like, 'Oh yeah, that's Sarah riding!'"
Sarah Nicki: An Olympic dream that could come true
The Olympic Qualifier Series, which will take place in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, in May before heading to Budapest, Hungary, in June, is Nicki's last calling point in her attempt to complete her Olympic Games dream, perhaps earlier than expected.
"It's been my dream since I was very little to go to the Olympics. This opportunity is coming up, I'm going to just put my everything into it and see what happens," she says.
"It's just that milestone: I've seen it, seen the Olympics, since I was very little, I knew that (BMX) freestyle would get in there one day. I'd go and watch them race BMX, go and watch Caroline (Buchanan) because she's been my inspiration and mentor forever.
"You see that and it's like, 'I want to get there at some point, I'm just going to have to push to get there.'"
So, the inaugural OQS – an event which has never previously happened before bringing together athletes from not just BMX freestyle but also breaking, sport climbing, and skateboarding – may be a little taste of what's to come.
"(It's) a little different because they're trying to treat it very like the Olympics obviously," Nicki acknowledges. "But I'm just trying to think like it's the same as any other comp: I still have my team there. I'll be on my bike. It's still going to be a skatepark.
"Train like you're competing. Compete like you train. I'm feeling pretty good right now. Not feeling too stressed about it, but I'm sure as I get close to the time, I'm going to be a little stressed out. But I'm pretty excited."
BMX Freestyle: Art or sport? Sarah Nicki has her say
Like many of the newer urban sports, including skateboarding and breaking, there is a mix of views on whether they are sport or art.
Nicki prefers not to pick a side, responding without hesitation to the question: "Both. I like to say it's a sport (because) it's intense. You have to do obviously heaps of physical training, activity, and even out there (riding) for a whole minute on the course or in practice.
"But also planning our runs, it's also kind of like an artwork. It's performing for the judges. You have your minute and you have to really plan it out, where you're going to do your big tricks, where are you going to do your smaller tricks to fill the run out? Where am I going next in the course? I would say it's both."
As a judged sport, that whole thing about standing out from the crowd is important, not just performing the standard tricks.
"If you watch anyone ride that's just doing tricks and nothing else, you're kind of like, 'That's really cool, the tricks are really hard.' But I'm just like, I want to see something different.
"With me, I like to try and go bigger. I love seeing everyone's different styles, it's so sick."
Home Olympic Games on the horizon
The bonus of Nicki still being only 17 is that she is barely at the start of her sporting career, whether or not she makes it to Paris 2024 this July.
For Nicki, who picked up the sport at a young age by tagging along with her father to skate parks – "My sister and dad used to go to the skate park with me. I wouldn't let my dad go to the skate park without me, so kind of got me into it," she admits – there's a long-term goal in mind: the next Olympic Games after Paris, Los Angeles 2028, in the American state where freestyle BMX was born.
"[In LA] I'll be 21," she says. "Someone said to me, no going crazy till after the Olympics because you'll have just been drinking age (in the U.S.), try not to do anything till after! But that'd be crazy to experience."
And there's an added incentive for her to keep going onwards another two years: a home Olympic Games on Australian soil.
"I'd love to go at least until 2032. I'll be 26 and it will be Brisbane, so that'd be really sick to have family and friends being able to come and watch. That would definitely be a great experience too."
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation.