Girl with the golden bike

If there is one athlete who skyrocketed into prominence at the recent Incheon Asian Games and won the hearts of Thais both in South Korea and at home, it’s Thai-American BMX rider Amanda Carr, a young lady able to perform amazing stunts on a small bike.

Carr made Thailand proud when she rode her bike No 39 to victory in Incheon with an incredible time of 37.328 seconds, relegating powerhouses China’s Lu Yan and Peng Na to second and third place respectively. She made a clean sweep in three trial competitions including a fine time of 37.392 seconds in the first moto, as the heats in BMX are known. Her scintillating victory in the women’s BMX event handed her motherland its ninth gold medal in the recently completed 17th edition of the Asian Games.

Winning a gold medal in Incheon was a dream come true for Carr, who credits the support of the Thais for pushing her to reach the pinnacle of her sport in what was a very tough competition.

“I’m so happy that I snatched the gold for the Thai Cycling Association and my homeland. It was a great, great thing and I would really like to thank all the Thai supporters and especially those from Udon Thani, my mum’s hometown, for boosting my morale. My next goal is a very big challenge – to win a medal for Thailand at the 2016 Olympic Games It won’t be easy but I am really going to try,” says the 24 year-old, who is currently ranked ninth in the world.  

“I have to admit I was worried about returning empty-handed from the Incheon Games. Winning the first moto was very satisfactory, but to finish first and get the gold, I had to repeat that feat in the next two motos. The fastest you get off the start, the better your chances. I was just determined to give it all everything I have to win a gold medal for Thailand,” she adds.

“I don’t know why No 39 was a clear favourite when the time came to choose a number – I just had a good feeling about it. When I asked my mother about No 39, she reminded me that it’s how old she was when pregnant with me,” Carr tells the camera in her video clip “BMX Amanda Carr – Behind the Helmet (Road to Olympics)”, which has attracted more than 30,000 views since her success in Incheon.

The curly-haired Carr was raised in the US and has a home in Florida’s Punta Gorda but her Thainess shines through, particularly when she smiles. Much to the surprise of her teammates and followers, she also speaks fluent Isaan, the dialect of the Thailand’s northeast, and explains this by saying that her mother Lamoon, always poke to her in her native tongue when she was a child. 

Like many women who are born beautiful, Carr was the homecoming queen of both her junior class and senior years and was also crowned prom princess.

Already a keen sportswoman as a youngster, lifting weights and playing both soccer and tennis while a student at Charlotte High School, Carr made her BMX competition debut in the UCI BMX World Champion for 15-year-old girls in Paris in 2005 and followed in 2006 year by entering the UCI BMX World Champion for 16-year-old girls in Sao Paolo, Brazil.

Back home, she added softball, golf and track and field athletics to her sporting schedule, entering a state track and field competition soon after and running the last leg of the women’s 4x100m relay event in record time, crossing the finish line first and bringing victory to her team. In a state weightlifting event, she finished a well-earned fourth position.

She began her tertiary education at Florida State University but the call of BMX proved too strong and she quit to become a full-time BMX rider. Not long after, she was invited to join a development programme of the USA national cycling team and train intensively at the USA Olympic Training Centre in Chula Vista, California. But while she had worked hard, advancing to the last four in the UCI Supercross World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2010 and also qualifying in the last eight in the UCI Supercross World Cup in Madrid, Spain, she knew she wasn’t ready for the highest level competition. 

Since then, the form of the gifted BMX rider has been improving by leaps and bounds. Her significant triumph in the Incheon Asian Games has already highlighted one of Thai cycling’s successes in the quadrennial sports extravaganza.

In her video clip “Behind the Helmet”, Carr muses that “A ship in habour is safe, but that is not what ships are built for”. Ships in reality have to sail in the open sea, sometime in turbulent currents against the storms. That seems a suitable metaphor for the life of this young BMX rider and she certainly has the courage and talent to overcome the obstacles that stand in her way and bring home a medal or two at the Rio Olympics in two years’ time.