Hannah Roberts (BMX cyclist)

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Hannah Roberts
BMX Chengdu 2017.jpg
Roberts in 2017
Personal information
Born (2001-08-10) August 10, 2001 (age 23)
South Bend, Indiana, U.S.
Medal record
Women's BMX
Representing Flag of the United States (23px).png  United States
Olympic Games
Silver medal icon (S initial).svg 2020 Tokyo Freestyle
Urban World Championships
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2017 Chengdu Freestyle Park
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2019 ChengduFreestyle Park
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2021 Montpellier Freestyle Park
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2022 Abu Dhabi Freestyle Park
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2023 Glasgow Freestyle Park
Bronze medal icon (B initial).svg 2018 ChengduFreestyle Park
Pan American Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2019 Lima Freestyle
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2023 Santiago Freestyle

Hannah Roberts (born August 10, 2001) is an American BMX freestyle cyclist. She is a five-time world champion in the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships and silver medalist in freestyle BMX at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Contents

Early life

Roberts was born in South Bend, Indiana. Roberts' mother is Betty Roberts. Roberts grew up in Buchanan, Michigan and graduated from Buchanan High School in 2019. [1]

Roberts began riding BMX at age 9. [1] Roberts entered her first BMX competition in 2012. [1]

Career

Urban World Championships

In 2017, Roberts competed in Chengdu, China at the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships where she won gold and became world champion. [2] [3] After earning bronze in 2018, Roberts won her second BMX world title in 2019 [4] and a third world title in 2021. [5] She went on two win two more gold medals in 2022 and 2023, thus becoming a five-time BMX Freestyle Park world champion. [6] As of 2024, no other woman has won more than one world title in this event.

2020 Olympics

Roberts became the first American to qualify in BMX freestyle for the 2020 Summer Olympics, the first Olympics the event was included. [4] Going into the event, Roberts was seeded first and was a favorite to win. [7] She had the highest score in the first round with a score of 96.10. For her second run, she needed to improve to a score of 97.50 to win gold, but after a poor landing, she stopped the run and received a silver medal. [8] [9]

2024 Olympics

In June 2024 Roberts qualified for her second Olympics by winning Olympic Qualifier Series held in Shanghai and Budapest. She was once again considered as one of the favorites to win gold in BMX Freestyle Park. [10] On the first day of competition in Paris Roberts captured the first place in qualification round and advanced to the final.

During the warmup before the final Roberts collided with Czech Iveta Miculyčová and grabbed her right shoulder. In her first final run she crashed on a front flip and put her foot down on the landing soon after she started the second run. Roberts eventually finished the competition 8th [11]

Competitive history

All results are sourced from the Union Cycliste Internationale.

As of August 5th, 2024

Olympic Games

EventFreestyle Park
Flag of Japan.svg 2020 Tokyo Silver
Flag of France.svg 2024 Paris 8th

UCI Cycling World Championships

EventFreestyle Park
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2017 Chengdu Gold
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2018 Chengdu Bronze
Flag of the People's Republic of China.svg 2019 Chengdu Gold
Flag of France.svg 2021 Montpellier Gold
Flag of the United Arab Emirates.svg 2022 Abu Dhabi Gold
Flag of the United Kingdom.svg 2023 Glasgow Gold

UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup

Season1234RankPoints
2022 MON
4
BRU
1
GOL
3
12590
2023 DIR
1
MON
2
BRU
2
BAZ
2
12800
2024 ENO
1
MON
SHA
 
51000

Personal life

Roberts is openly a member of the LGBT community. [12] In a 2021 interview, she identified as queer. Roberts was once married to a woman, but they separated in 2022; Roberts stated in a 2024 interview that personal difficulties related to the divorce had a negative impact on her performance in athletic events for two years, as administrative responsibilities related to the split were time-consuming: "I was going through a divorce the end of 2022, and it led to a lot of 2023 just dividing certain things. We had dogs and stuff that we had to split, and that was hard. We had other financial things to figure out. And I was dealing with all of that almost every time that I was off the bike. . . . there was a lot less time spent on my bike because I was trying to get everything figured out." [13] [14]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Hannah Roberts". teamusa.org/. Archived from the original on February 4, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  2. AP (July 6, 2018). "Teen Hannah Roberts rises to top in BMX, Olympics in sight". USA TODAY. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  3. Hammon, Kelsey (March 5, 2019). "Buchanan native first female BMX freestyler to win world championship". Leader Publications. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  4. 1 2 "Hannah Roberts is first U.S. Olympic qualifier in BMX freestyle". sports.yahoo.com. February 3, 2020. Archived from the original on February 23, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
  5. "BMX Freestyle: Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin crowned Urban Cycling 2021 World Champions". Olympics.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  6. "2023 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup: Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin claim the overall titles". UCI.org. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  7. "Watch Hannah Roberts' Top-Scoring Run During Women's BMX Freestyle Seeding". NBC Chicago. July 31, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  8. "South Bend native Hannah Roberts takes silver in women's BMX freestyle at Tokyo Olympics". www.msn.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  9. "19-Year-Old Hannah Roberts Nabs Silver in BMX Freestyle's Olympic Debut". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
  10. "BMX SUPERSTAR HANNAH ROBERTS IS EMBRACING A SECOND CHANCE AT OLYMPIC GOLD". TEAM USA. July 29, 2024. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
  11. "Deng Yawen of China wins freestyle BMX gold, 5-time world champ Hannah Roberts of US crashes out". Associated Press . July 31, 2024. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
  12. "Meet the Out LGBTQ+ Team USA Athletes Competing in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games". Human Rights Campaign . July 25, 2024. Archived from the original on July 25, 2024. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  13. Theil, Michele (July 12, 2024). "Meet Hannah Roberts, the LGBTQ+ BMX rider heading to the Olympics". PinkNews . Archived from the original on July 25, 2024. Retrieved July 25, 2024.
  14. Goh, ZK (May 16, 2024). "With divorce behind her, Hannah Roberts aims to go one better at Paris 2024". Olympic Qualifier Series . Archived from the original on July 25, 2024. Retrieved July 25, 2024.