She won BMX silver in Rio. Now she’s in Rock Hill getting ready for the Tokyo Olympics.
It isn’t just the world-class facility at Rock Hill’s BMX Supercross Track that makes professional BMX racer Alise Willoughby fond of the area.
The site hosted the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships, where Willoughby and her husband, Australian BMX cyclist Sam Willoughby, won their first major international competition together after Sam suffered a career-ending accident that left him tetraplegic and he turned to coaching Alise.
The couple is back at the track in Rock Hill, S.C. this weekend for Carolina Nationals, a three-day event and major stop for Team USA Cycling athletes ahead of the Olympic Games this summer.
Alise, who’s a Team Toyota athlete, spoke with the Observer about getting ready to go for gold in Tokyo, her surprising NASCAR connections and the challenges of training for the Olympic stage in the pandemic era.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Alex Andrejev: What does preparation for the Olympic games look like right now for you and why is this weekend of racing important?
Alise Willoughby: Everyone is in a unique position obviously with our games being delayed a year, but all of these races are still very important for me in preparation (for the Olympics). You don’t want to go a year without competing and then try to get on the biggest stage and not think you’re going to be a little rusty, so this is all-important for me.
I had really great results leading into the pandemic year, so I was in a pretty secure position. Obviously, nothing’s guaranteed with my selection to an Olympic team yet, but with how our selection works within USA Cycling, I’m the reigning world champion and there’s not much that can trump that as a selection point because there is no World Championships between now and the Olympics.
We still have our USA Cycling National Championship on Sunday, which is just a great opportunity. We don’t have a trial per se this go around for the Olympics, but it’s as close as we get when we’re racing other American girls going for those spots and it’s great prep for me. And we’re on the big, eight-meter hill (in Rock Hill). Rock Hill has hosted multiple World Cups and it was actually my first World Championship win in Elite back in 2017, so it holds a little special place in my heart being back here.
AA: What are some benchmarks you’re looking at then since you already feel confident in your spot for Tokyo?
AW: My sights are set in a few months as far as a training load goes, but at the same time, this particular race within our series this year has been a focal point on the calendar, having the USA Cycling National Championship on Sunday and then having the international field for the first two days of racing.
Every race I enter obviously the outcome goal is a win, so that’s where I need to be at. And you want to be able to physically put out those good efforts. We’ve got timing, we’ve got benchmarks from previous racing here for me to know where I’m at. Even from training sessions this week that I’ve had, I already know I’m tracking in the right direction. Getting in and having that race head is a big part of it.
Like I said, you don’t want to go a year, two years without getting on the track and being in that race mentality and having that competition right next to you. Training by yourself is a very different thing as to being in a race and having to execute in that moment when it counts.
AA: Do you see any correlation between BMX racing and motorsports? (Willoughby is a native of St. Cloud, Minn. and lives in Southern California, but said she considered settling down near Rock Hill.)
AW: We have a lot of NASCAR friends, but also people whose kids are racing out here, as it’s the closest big facility to Charlotte. Back when the World Cups were out here, I’ve had friends in the NASCAR industry out watching and they get those tactics, they get the strategy behind what people are doing or why passes aren’t made here or there. They just have an eye for things that non-racers don’t. So it’s cool to have that correlation and those race fans in the area.
AA: How have you had to adjust your schedule and training? What’s been the biggest challenge of preparation other than the postponed games?
AW: The biggest thing has been definitely the limit of events and the unknown of when things are going to be. There are things on the calendar that aren’t really on the calendar because they ended up getting canceled, so it’s hard to set your sights on much of anything.
The National Championship was actually my last race before the shutdown happened ... You have to find a way to be motivated and keep that mental edge. When you’re racing all the time, I feel like you get in a groove, you get in a rhythm and it’s easier to keep that motivation. Race day on Sunday, that’s what everyone’s in it for. That’s why you love to do what you do, but the further and further you get away from that, the easier it becomes to lose sight of the long-term goal. So you need to execute on those limited opportunities …
Obviously, the goal isn’t to just make a team for me. It’s to improve on a silver medal from the last games (2016 Olympics in Rio). I want to go one better with the amazing support and team around me that I have going into this Olympics.
AA: Your husband seems to be a really influential part of your life and career. How did you two meet and what has your career looked like with him?
AW: We’ve been side-by-side my entire career really. We met back in 2008 at the World Championships in China. He’s Australian and I’m American, and we were both racing Junior Elite at that event and we met there. He came over to the U.S. later that year to start his professional career in BMX racing and has been here ever since. We both competed and he’s very successful and arguably one of the best on the men’s side to ever do it. Obviously, things took a little bit of a turn in 2016 after the games, when he had that crash, but it was a few months later that he took on a role in a coaching position for me and I entrusted this next chapter in his hands to do it as a team.
And we’ve been going about it that way since that time. It’s been pretty successful on and off the track. On the track, I’ve won two World Championships. That first one being here in Rock Hill in July of 2017, so that was our first international win together, with him in that coaching role. To win there, less than a year after his injury, was a pretty special deal. He has always been a huge NASCAR fan. He came in from Australia and I think picked the most American thing he could to start following and as a race fan.
He’s loved being part of this with team Toyota, too, and I think his part of my story makes the connection with what Toyota stands for that much better and stronger because I’ve always valued movement for everybody. With Toyota making that shift to being a mobility company, I think now I understand more than ever that crossover with the Paralympic Games and the importance of that for everyone and mobility for all.
AA: I didn’t realize your husband was such a big NASCAR fan. Does he have a favorite driver?
AW: Oh my gosh. We race this Sunday, (but we were planning) to be in Bristol for this dirt race actually that day. Sam was (jokingly) like, ‘Well, maybe you race. I go to (Bristol).’” We’ll definitely have it on in the trailer at the race this weekend in between laps and stuff. We watch it all the time.
Favorite driver? He’s kind of all over the charts, but we actually had a great experience with Truex. We got to go to the Daytona 500 last year and did a fun ride along with Martin Truex Jr. He actually towed me in on my bike for some content on the banks of Daytona. So I don’t know how many people have ridden their BMX bikes on Daytona. We did a ride-along and some stuff there and that was pretty cool, so we’re always cheering for all the Toyota crew, but that was kind of a special gig, to have that experience with Martin Truex Jr.
AA: So how do you think stock cars are going to run on dirt?
AW: I don’t know, but I think there are going to be some crashes that’s for sure (laughing). They’re gonna get loose. It could be a long day. I fly home Sunday night as well, so we’ll probably end up watching it on the airplane, on the whole flight. They’ll probably be running pretty late is my guess.
USA BMX Carolina Nationals
When: Races begin at 2 p.m. Friday, noon on Saturday and 8 a.m. Sunday.
Cost: Free to watch, $10 to park
More information: www.cityofrockhill.com
