From Fear to
Champion.

Saya Sakakibara Olympic Gold Medalist

Olympic Gold Medalist

RACING WITH PURPOSE

What started with family became something more. Every race is fuelled by resilience, perspective, and the pursuit of something bigger.

Career
Highlights

Paris Olympic Games Gold

3 x World Cup Overall Champion

5 x Australian National Champions

Partners

Saya Sakakibara is an Olympic gold medallist and two-time Olympian, representing Australia at the highest level of BMX racing. Born on the Gold Coast in 1999, she spent her early childhood in Japan, where she was introduced to BMX by her older brother, Kai. Travelling the national circuit together, her passion for the sport was built through family, competition, and a drive to follow in his footsteps.

At just seven years old, Saya claimed a silver medal in the under 8 girls category at the UCI BMX World Championships in Brazil, marking the beginning of her international career. After relocating to Australia at age eight, she continued to develop her racing, quickly rising through the ranks.
Turning professional in 2017, Saya made an immediate impact on the elite circuit. In her debut season, she placed sixth at the World Championships, secured her first World Cup victory, and finished second overall in the World Cup standings.
In 2020, her journey took a profound turn when Kai suffered a traumatic brain injury in a racing accident. Supporting him through recovery while pursuing her own Olympic dream, Saya competed at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021, where a crash in the semi-finals ended her campaign and resulted in a concussion.
The following year brought further challenges, including another concussion that led her to step away from the sport. However, driven by a sense of unfinished purpose, Saya returned in 2023 with a renewed perspective. Rebuilding her approach from the ground up, she delivered a breakthrough season—winning five World Cups, claiming the UCI World Cup Overall title three consecutive years (2023, 2024, 2025), and securing Olympic gold at the Paris 2024 Games.
Now established as one of the world’s leading BMX athletes, Saya continues to set the standard in her sport—defined by resilience, precision, and an unwavering commitment to excellence, both on and off the track.

Inspiring the nation

Testimonials

Saya was a 5-Star speaker, we were extremely satisfied with how she adapted her content to our event, with her professionalism as well as her ability to engage the audience. We give her a perfect score overall for her presentation!

Saya and her team were absolutely brilliant to work with, she was awesome on the day of our Ready25 Conference! Our staff appreciated how she conducted herself and her experiences shared on stage with Cathy Freeman

Saya has our sincere thanks for the work she did with us at our Conference, Elevate 2024. The buzz in the room in her session was electric and we received so much positive feedback about having her as our keynote speaker for it

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One
Unforgettable
Story

Through fear, family tragedy, and devastating setbacks, Saya Sakakibara fought to keep her Olympic dream alive. Just Go is a story of resilience, courage, and discovering how far you can go when you refuse to give up.

From Fear to Champion.