Five-time BMX Freestyle world champion Hannah Roberts: The elusive Olympic gold is the only missing piece in the puzzle

BMX Freestyler Hannah Roberts of the United States has, despite her 22 years, won just about everything - five World Championships, the Pan American Games and multiple UCI World Cup titles.

This weekend she is looking to wrap up yet another overall Freestyle Park World Cup victory as the season concludes in Bazhong.

But there is one thing missing in her already booming trophy collection - Olympic gold.

Roberts missed the top step of the podium at Tokyo 2020 in 2021 by a small margin to Charlotte Worthington of Great Britain, who scored 97.50, while Roberts settled for silver on 96.10.

“I knew that there were some things that I could do to improve my score and hopefully take that gold back. I messed up in the moment. That's all it is,” Roberts said after her run at Tokyo 2020 according to USA Cycling.

The American is doing all she can to ensure that next year at Paris 2024, she can add the missing golden piece to the puzzle. But it hasn't all been a smooth ride.

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Hannah Roberts: An eye-opening thing

Roberts has been dominating the women’s BMX Freestyle competitions, ever since she won her first world title aged just 16 in 2017.

At the 2023 World Championships in Glasgow, the Indiana-born freestyler put on the distinctive rainbow jersey for the fifth time.

The win came after a challenging 2022, where the American ended the year crashing both at the World Championships in Abu Dhabi and at the final World Cup stop in Australia.

Nevertheless, Roberts could claim the world title - and the overall World Cup. But what followed in the time after, made her come to an important realisation.

“I think I handle injuries well. For the most part I’m like, ‘I broke my arm, let’s cut the cast and keep riding,’” Roberts said to Team USA. “This time, I was not able to do anything on my own. I was on crutches, and it scared me. It took me to a different place, of being scared and depressed. It was an eye-opening thing. I realized this was no joke, I needed to really take care of myself, mentally and physically to get through this.

“You need to really focus on yourself and taking care of your body and mind. I knew that before, but I think this time around, because of the pain and how scary this has been at times, I understand that message in a deeper way. I used to make jokes about when I was hurt, ‘Yeah, ha ha, I crashed and got hurt.’ But when you can’t walk, or do stuff for yourself like you used to, it’s not something you just can blow off.”

Hannah Roberts: Inspired by new riders from People’s Republic of China

Although Roberts has struggled with injuries in the new season too, she started where she left off, and was victorious at the first World Cup stop in Diriyah, Saudi Arabia.

At the following two stops, the Olympic silver medallist was relegated to second place by 18-year-old Zhou Huimin of the People’s Republic of China.

The country who are hosting this final World Cup event of the season has entered the women’s BMX Freestyle scene with great success having riders placed second through six at this year’s World Championships.

“The Chinese riders have been riding exceptionally well this year and stacking the results as a team. Team China is coming on strong, and they have some of the best riders in the world. They are so motivated to keep it going,” she told USA Cycling.

“I’m always excited to keep pushing my riding but I also enjoy seeing the push from other riders and honestly it’s incredible to see all the riders out of China. I don’t know if that specifically makes me ride harder but it definitely inspires me,” Roberts also explained to fatbmx.com.

Hannah Roberts: There's always people pushing to beat you

The American freestyler is aware that it is not easy to keep winning.

With the increased competition in the sport, Roberts knows that she needs to continue to improve herself in the future to add more trophies - including that elusive Olympic gold medal.

”There’s always people pushing to beat you, and there are times where motivation runs out so it’s a constant mental battle to keep pushing and progressing as well as outside challenges such as other riders,” she told fatbmx.com.

Before the final UCI World Cup stop in People’s Republic of China, Roberts is leading the women's standings with 2800 points, Zhou Huimin is on 2350 and Sun Sibei 2110 on the overall rankings.

The venue for the Paris 2024 BMX freestyle park event will be La Concorde Urban Park and the entire competition will take place over two days. The finals will take place on 31 July 2024**.**