As Australian BMX racer Saya Sakakibara prepares to compete in the Olympic finals tomorrow, she wears the number 77 on her back to honour her biggest supporter – her older brother Kai.
Growing up, the two siblings were a BMX team. Living together, training together and racing together.
Since the age of three, Saya has followed in the footsteps of her brother’s love for BMX, telling the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI): “To me, my career is nothing without Kai, so that number 77 represents him.”
Back in 2020, both Kai and Saya were considered strong medal prospects for the Tokyo Olympics.
While the Tokyo Olympics was a particularly special dream, as both share Japanese heritage, things took a turn for the worst when Kai fell in the opening heat at a BMX World Cup event in Canberra.
As a result of the accident, Kai spent two months in the hospital in a medically induced coma, with doctors saying they didn’t know if he’d survive.
Meanwhile, Saya was selected to compete at the Tokyo Olympics, and said at the time that she competed for herself as well as her brother on the world stage.
Saya made it all the way through to the semi-finals, when unfortunately tragedy struck yet again. She sustained a crash that saw her carried off the race course, unconscious on a stretcher.
Thankfully, she was able to recover from the accident but it left her with prolonged concussion symptoms and an emotional blow. She said she was close to quitting the sport altogether after her crash as she had to really reflect on whether racing BMX was “worth it”.
Eventually, however, Saya found the love for her sport again by conquering her fears and giving the Olympics another go. This year she’s come back stronger than ever.
“When I made the decision that I wasn’t done yet, my purpose was to face my fears and show others that they can do it too,” the 24-year-old Japanese-Australian told Sports Hounds.
“When I conquer my fear, it’s an amazing feeling. And I think that’s what drives me. And also, I hate the feeling of backing down from a challenge that I know I am capable of. So it’s a push and pull from both ends.”
After putting in the work to get back into BMX, Saya became the 2023 World Cup champion following the six-round campaign and returned to the circuit this year to claim back-to-back World Cup titles and cement her world number one ranking.
Ahead of Paris, Saya has said: “For me, I’m expecting to just do my thing. I know that I can. I know that I can come into race week and face the challenges that arise and execute my best performance. So I’m expecting to do that.”
The double overall World Cup champion’s redemptive comeback has seen her put on a powerful performance in Paris so far. Saya is a favourite to pick up her first Olympic title at the BMX Stadium in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines early on Saturday morning (5:50 am AEST).
Saya won all three of her quarter-final runs to become one of the 12 automatic qualifiers for a spot in the finals– in the same event that left her on a stretcher in Tokyo.
“I like the pressure, the attention,” Saya said about the upcoming finals. “I like the cameras on me, I like people cheering for me and I just wish there were more people. It puts a really big smile on my face.”