Paris Olympics 2024: Saya Sakakibara’s remarkable Olympic tale is complete with emotional gold medal

Three years ago, BMX star Saya Sakakibara was lying in a Japanese hospital.

She had been wiped out of an Olympic final she was a chance to win and concussed, competing in the same sport that left her brother Kai with a life-altering traumatic brain injury.

Her family was forced to watch on in fear from home as she was stretchered off the Tokyo track and into an ambulance.

On Saturday morning (AWST), they were in the stands in Paris to see her lift an Australian flag above her head as an Olympic gold medallist.

Sakakibara won all three of her qualifying races and all three of her semifinal heats. She hit the first corner in the lead and was hardly challenged again in a dominant final that completed a stirring Australian sporting story.

The 24-year-old, who had rode the bumps and weathered setback after setback, even considered giving the sport away.

“It’s so amazing,” Sakakibara said as she fought back tears.

“This means so much, my family is here. Everything that I’ve been through the last two years, three years — this was what got me going.

“I just envisioned this moment. I just visualised being at the top of the start and on the podium, hearing the national anthem and having the gold medal around my neck.

“Every setback I had since the moment I thought ‘I’m going to give this another crack’, I just had that in mind. I wanted it.

“All I had to do was just f...ing go and I f...ing went for it and I didn’t want to leave here without just making myself proud and make these setbacks worthwhile.”

A proud Kai Sakakibara watched on in the stands as the No. 77 he used to race in cross the Olympic finish line on the back of his sister. He said part of him was on the Paris track.

It felt just like getting the medal myself.

“It felt just like getting the medal myself,” he said.

“She did it perfectly and I felt like I was part of her, so I’d like to thank her for that.”

The newly-minted Olympic champion later opened up on why she came so close to giving the sport away.

“I think it was more so the multiple concussions. After the Tokyo one, only 11 months later I had another crash and going through those two concussions I was like ‘well, it’s a head injury’,” Sakakibara said.

“It made me think is this really worth risking my long-term health for this and at one point I was like ‘no it’s not, I want to have a long and happy life and maybe BMX has run its course’.

“I was doing it because I was doing it with Kai and now he’s not here, or doing it with me, and I thought that maybe it was time for me to leave it.

“But I think looking back at where I was before I crashed, there was a lot of potential there and there was that burning desire of like you have to try again, because you’d regret it for the rest of your life.”

Saya said her greatest achievement simply would not have been possible without her brother.

“None of this would have happened without Kai, without him pushing me to be the best I can be, without him introducing me into the sport, without him pushing me along and just everything,” she said.

“I owe so much to him, I feel like I am so indebted to Kai and I just wanted something I could dedicate a win to and this is definitely for the both of us, 100 per cent.”

Sakakibara also revealed for the first time that the illness that had dogged her preparation was COVID-19, but she didn’t want to let that get in the way of her story.

“I knew that either way it was going to end in tears,” she said.

“I had COVID at the start of this week, I missed a session on the track and I thought ‘I can’t believe this is going to be my Olympic story’, I just wanted to make sure it was going to be a gold medal story.”

Adding to her mental fortitude, just minutes before her own race, Sakakibara watched on from behind the scenes as her partner Romain Mahieu claimed a bronze medal as part of a French one-two-three and compatriot Izaak Kennedy clattered into a barrier while in third spot.

“Obviously he wanted the win, but to get a bronze medal at a home Olympics, it would be so cool and to share the podium with his teammates,” she said.

Her dominant qualifying rounds meant Sakakibara was able to chose her preferred lane one.

“As I rocked up today, it was six o’clock and I knew it was going to end at 10. I knew I was going to make those four hours the proudest I have ever been to myself,” she said.

“Once I was at the top of the start I was like ‘well, lane one, I’m the most comfortable I’ve ever been, that’s all I’ve been riding all week and I just knew I had it.”

But the first person she celebrated with was Mahieu, who picked her up off the ground behind the finishing line.

“When I crossed the line he was the first person I saw. I’m just so grateful,” Sakakibara said.