St. Cloud’s Alise Willoughby finishes sixth in BMX racing in latest try for elusive Olympic gold

MONTIGNY-LE-BRETONNEUX, France — Saya Sakakibara seriously thought about giving up BMX racing a few years ago. She had suffered a concussion in a crash during the Tokyo Olympics, then had another within the year, and it became impossible not to start thinking about her brother.

Kai Sakakibara had to retire from racing in 2020 after sustaining a serious brain injury at a World Cup event.

“I was really not enjoying it,” Saya Sakakibara said. “After the second concussion, I really thought that was the end for me.”

She had been riding so well before Tokyo, though, that she couldn’t help but think of what might have been. So she decided to push on to Paris, knowing full well that if she put everything together at the right time, she was good enough for gold.

It happened on Friday night at the BMX course just outside the city.

Sakakibara beat American rider Alise Willoughby to the first corner and was never tested again, cruising through the jumps and bumps to the top step of the podium. Manon Veenstra of the Netherlands was second and Zoe Claessens of Switzerland third.

Sakakibara’s partner, Romain Mahieu, won bronze earlier in the night to complete a French sweep of the men’s podium.

“After Tokyo,” Sakakibara said, “I think that concussion was probably the start of kind of that emotional roller coaster that I had, and maybe up until that I point I hadn’t really revisited or dealt with the emotions that I had after Kai’s accident.

“But reflecting back on Tokyo, before the crash I was doing pretty good, and I think there was that burning desire of what could have been. And if i gave it all up then, I would be very, very disappointed that I didn’t give it another crack.”

Willoughby, a three-time world champion from St. Cloud, was shuffled back after the first corner in the finals and finished sixth. Bethany Shriever of Britain, the reigning Olympic champion, was never in the medal mix and finished last in the eight-rider finals.

“It was a tough one. Tough one to swallow,” said Willoughby, whose only medal in four Olympics remains the silver she won in 2016 in Rio. “Just disappointed, obviously, but chin still up, you know?”

The opening heats, which concluded just as a thunderstorm drenched the covered BMX track adjacent to National Velodrome of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines on Thursday night, were dominated by the three riders considered the medal favorites.

That would be Sakakibara, Shriever and Willoughby, who has won just about everything in her career but Olympic gold.

If there was another favorite, it was Mariana Pajon of Colombia — and she had a much more difficult time.

The two-time Olympic champion and reigning silver medalist failed to finish better than fifth in any of her three heats. That left Pajon to race the dreaded last-chance qualifier. She won, but the extra race may have taken a bit out of her legs.

Shriever and Sakakibara swept each of their semifinal runs, but Willoughby found herself in trouble.

She finished second to Sakakibara in her first run before getting shuffled back to seventh in her second, leaving Willoughby the first rider on the outside with one semifinal to go. She was solidly in second until the final straight when Claessens pulled next to her, but Willoughby used a bike-throw at the line to take second place in a photo finish.

That helped to give her the points necessary to make the finals. It came at the expense of Pajon, who tied with Axelle Etienne of France for the last spot but lost out on the tiebreaker.

Then in the finals, Sakakibara showed that she was the class of the field.

Veenstra and Claessens made for a pair of surprises standing alongside her on the podium.

“I didn’t really do great in the semis, and I was just like, ‘OK, go full gas,’” Claessens said. “I’ll pick the outside, go full gas and it worked out, and I’m very happy.”