Three years ago Hannah Roberts, already the best freestyle BMX rider of her generation before her 20th birthday, entered the women’s park competition at the Tokyo Olympics as the overwhelming favorite, having swept the entire World Cup schedule in addition to the past two world championships. After qualifying first for the final, her opening-run score at the Ariake Urban Sports Park was nearly seven points better than anyone in the field. But when Britain’s Charlotte Worthington laid down the ride of her life to move into gold medal position, Roberts went home with silver after landing hard on an early jump and abandoning the rest of her final run. She’d later admit she competed the entire time with a taped-up broken foot.
Now 22 and still the dominant force in her sport, and with three more world titles under her belt, Roberts has spoken at length about how that disappointment has motivated her, pushing her forth through countless six-hour training days on the bike or in the gym when she’s not courting sponsors to pay the bills. All signs pointed to a redemptive gold at these Paris Olympics even before the competition was blown open during Tuesday’s preliminary round, which saw Roberts top all qualifiers once again while defending champion Worthington and Tokyo bronze medalist Nikita Ducarroz failed to reach the final.
But it didn’t take long for the five-time world champion’s Olympic dream to spin into a nightmare on another sweltering afternoon in central Paris. Several minutes before Wednesday’s final even started, Roberts collided with Czech rider Iveta Miculyčová while going over a jump during warmups and immediately sprinted to the medical tent while gesturing toward her right shoulder. Her day only went south from there before a packed crowd of about 4,000 spectators at the temporary open-air stadium at the Place de La Concorde.
Roberts crashed on a front flip late in her first run and put her foot down on the opening jump of her second, waving off both rides and finishing a shocking eighth out of nine finalists. China’s Deng Yawen won the gold with the highest score from a pair of near-flawless runs, each of them remarkable displays of speed, amplitude, height, flow and variety that made ample use of the sprawling urban park. The American Perris Benegas, Roberts’ less heralded teammate, earned the silver with a clutch final ride. Australia’s Natalya Diehm held on for bronze, pipping Queen Saray Villegas Serna of Colombia by eight-tenths of a point.
“It was just a lot mentally, a lot of pressure I put on myself,” said Roberts, who was born in South Bend, Indiana, but grew up in Buchanan, Michigan. “There’s a lot of things that can go wrong in a very short amount of time and today just wasn’t my day.”
BMX freestyle took a massive step toward legitimization in 2016, when it came under the umbrella of Union Cycliste International (UCI) and a World Cup circuit was formed to give top riders a competitive platform. Of the six world championships that have been held since the discipline’s debut in 2017, Roberts has won five.
The lone other winner during that span was Benegas, who took the world title in 2018. The 29-year-old was uncertain she’d even make it to Paris after undergoing ACL-LCL-meniscus surgery that kept her off the bike until May.
“[Rehab] has just been quite the grind from day one,” said Benegas, who missed the podium by seven-tenths of a point in Tokyo. “I knew that the Olympics was something I wanted to be a part of, so I just did everything I could and put my head down and got to work and I’m just very happy to be here and even more grateful to walk away with the medal.”
After posting a clean baseline score of 83.40 on her first run, Benegas ramped up the difficulty for her second try, including an eye-catching 360 into an X-up that impressed the judges. “I just wanted to go out there and put a run down that I was stoked on, personally,” she said. “It’s just the best run that counts, so there’s everything to win, nothing to lose,” she said. “I just told myself, ‘Let’s go.’”
Few have better insight on Benegas’s journey to the Olympic podium than Roberts, who praised the tenacity and persistence of her older teammate and friend. “There’s nobody more hard-working than Perris,” Roberts said. “Just watching her mentality, going through rehab and going through the gym, and getting right back into where we started, that’s super impressive. Perris is one hell of a badass, on and off the bike. She’s a lovely person. She’s probably one of my best friends.”
Even as her Olympic disappointment reached new depths, Roberts kept a positive outlook with an early eye on the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
“No matter what, I’m just stoked to be able to be doing this,” she said. “It’s a dream come true. Obviously the goal is to win the gold medal at the Olympics. But at the same time, it doesn’t need to happen. I have a very accomplished career at 22, and I’m just looking at continuing to get better no matter what.”
• This article was amended on 1 August 2024 to correct a misspelling of Deng Yawen’s name.
