A Jacksonville woman and BMX rider is looking to make her second trip to the Olympics this summer after taking silver for Team USA in 2021.
Hannah Roberts is 22 years old and a Michigan native, but she moved to North Carolina at age 17 for better training accessibility. After spending about a year in Raleigh, Roberts bought a house in Jacksonville. Growing up, she played a lot of team sports, but said she didn’t like relying on other people to win.
Then, while watching the X Games at eight years old, Roberts fell in love with not only the sport of BMX, but the way the riders supported each other.
“I wanted a bike and it kind of just happened from there. I never really thought this would be my career,” Roberts said. “I just did it for fun for a while and then I turned pro at 12 years old and started traveling the world at 14.”
Roberts grew up competing against the boys, as there weren’t many BMX events for female riders. She said she actually preferred competing against the boys because she was striving to be the best. At age 12, Roberts took second in her first professional women’s event, then beginning to get sponsorship opportunities.
While Roberts lives in Jacksonville, she trains in Wilmington. She said North Carolina has a strong BMX presence, Greenville actually once being known as a pro town.
Roberts had her first Olympics experience in 2021 in Tokyo, which were supposed to take place in 2020.
“The first experience was rough. I was announced to the team before COVID happened, before everything got shut down,” Roberts said. “I was training full time and then everything stopped, and it was such a crazy halt in all my plans, everybody’s plans.”
Once training and the road to the Olympics started up again, Roberts said she was under a lot of pressure. She was the gold-hopeful for Team USA, but unfortunately, ended up breaking her foot just six weeks before the games.
Despite the injury, Roberts still took home silver, an impressive feat, but she beat herself up anyway.
“Honestly, I was not in a great state of mind,” she said. “I didn’t really know how to accept that I got hurt and that I did the best that I could. I took a pretty big hiatus, and then I got back on my bike, and we were already into another Olympic qualifying, trying to get points to see if we could go.”
Team USA only has one spot, which hasn’t been decided yet, but Roberts is looking to solidify her own personal spot in the games no matter what. She said world championship wins help, which she took home in both 2022 and 2023.
She just got back from a qualifying event in China, where she took fourth, again with an injury. Roberts said she had pulled her quad muscle, hindering her ability to place higher. She has one more qualifying event in Budapest next month, and if she places in the top six again, she will earn her spot no matter what else happens.
Not only is Roberts looking to try again for gold this summer in Paris, she’s also just been invited to the 2024 X Games next month in Ventura. While she did demos for the X Games in her teens, Roberts explained it’s the first time in history women’s BMX riders will be allowed to compete for a medal.
She can’t wait for the opportunity and will likely inspire other young female athletes along the way. She said the best advice she’s ever been given was to take everything one day at a time.
“Don’t take anything for granted. It just makes you work 10 times harder,” Roberts said. “If you focus on today and not the long-term goal, it just makes everything kind of fit better into your mental space where you can put more effort into certain things.”
As for the future, Roberts doesn’t plan on stopping anytime soon. She said she has an Olympic tattoo on her bicep and hopes to fill in all the rings. With Tokyo and soon Paris filled-in, she said she hopes to also go to Los Angeles in 2028 and Brisbane in 2032, as well as the 2036 Olympics, wherever that may be.
Roberts added she also plans to return to school this year to pursue a law degree.
According to the USA Cycling website, Roberts is a five-time UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) world champion. Her cousin, Brett Banasiewicz, was once one of the best riders in the country, the website adds.
At age 17, Roberts also became the first-ever BMX Freestyle World Champion at the inaugural UCI World Championships in China. In 2019, she became the first woman to ever land a 360-Tailwhip in competition.
The 2024 Paris Olympics begin this July, so be sure to cheer on Roberts as she looks to bring gold home to Jacksonville.
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