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.
 Roberts in 2017 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | August 10, 2001 South Bend, Indiana, U.S. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Early life
editRoberts 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 international BMX competition in 2012.[1]
Career
editUrban World Championships
editIn 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
editRoberts 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
editIn 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
editAll results are sourced from the Union Cycliste Internationale.
As of August 5th, 2024
Olympic Games
edit| Event | Freestyle Park |
|---|---|
 2020 Tokyo
|
Silver |
 2024 Paris
|
8th |
UCI Cycling World Championships
edit| Event | Freestyle Park |
|---|---|
 2017 Chengdu
|
Gold |
| 2018 Chengdu
|
Bronze |
| 2019 Chengdu
|
Gold |
| 2021 Montpellier
|
Gold |
 2022 Abu Dhabi
|
Gold |
 2023 Glasgow
|
Gold |
| 2024 Abu Dhabi
|
Gold |
UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup
edit| Season | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Rank | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | MON 4 |
BRU 1 |
GOL 3 |
1 | 2590 | |
| 2023 | DIR 1 |
MON 2 |
BRU 2 |
BAZ 2 |
1 | 2800 |
| 2024 | ENO 1 |
MON — |
SHA |
5 | 1000 |
Personal life
editRoberts 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]
References
edit- ^ a b c "Hannah Roberts". teamusa.org/. Archived from the original on February 4, 2020. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
- ^ AP (July 6, 2018). "Teen Hannah Roberts rises to top in BMX, Olympics in sight". USA TODAY. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
- ^ Hammon, Kelsey (March 5, 2019). "Buchanan native first female BMX freestyler to win world championship". Leader Publications. Retrieved February 22, 2020.
- ^ a b "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.
- ^ "BMX Freestyle: Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin crowned Urban Cycling 2021 World Champions". Olympics.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ "2023 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup: Hannah Roberts and Logan Martin claim the overall titles". UCI.org. Retrieved August 5, 2024.
- ^ "Watch Hannah Roberts' Top-Scoring Run During Women's BMX Freestyle Seeding". NBC Chicago. July 31, 2021. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ "South Bend native Hannah Roberts takes silver in women's BMX freestyle at Tokyo Olympics". www.msn.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ "19-Year-Old Hannah Roberts Nabs Silver in BMX Freestyle's Olympic Debut". PEOPLE.com. Retrieved August 13, 2021.
- ^ "BMX SUPERSTAR HANNAH ROBERTS IS EMBRACING A SECOND CHANCE AT OLYMPIC GOLD". TEAM USA. July 29, 2024. Retrieved July 29, 2024.
- ^ "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.
- ^ "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.
- ^ 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.
- ^ 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.
External links
edit- Hannah Roberts at USA Cycling
- Hannah Roberts at Olympics.com
- Hannah Roberts at Olympedia
- Hannah Roberts at Team USA (archive July 11, 2022)
- Hannah Roberts on Facebook
