I don't remember not being on a bike, my parents said they took the training wheels off at 2 1/2 because I just didn't need them anymore. I do remember, of course, the day I got my first race bike; I was five years old and had been begging for it all year long. It was a shinny chrome Redline mini, my young parents had sacrificed a lot to buy it and it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I looked over at the pink old clunker that weighed more than I did, was 3 sizes to big and said goodbye to it forever. This was the beginning to my life that I would devote to BMX racing.

We had been going to the BMX track for a few years to watch my dad race. I would scream at him while he was on the track to go faster, why wouldn't he just go faster? I could go faster, I knew it. That first week I got the real "race bike" my parents signed me up for my very first ever BMX race. I don't remember the actual race, just that I was super excited to be on the track. Story goes I would be leading the race until the end when we passed the bleachers of spectators cheering for all the 5 and unders. I would then stop, parade wave to my parents in the crowd, and inevitably get passed before the finish line.

I'm 24 now and I definitely don't parade wave to the crowd down the last straight. BMX has become my passion, my profession, my life. It is 35-40 seconds of pure explosive power combined with the finesse of a gymnast over jumps and through corners. There is no better feeling in the world than combining those two elements into the perfect lap.

A traditional BMX track has a 6-9ft mellow dirt starting hill, with jumps that range from 3ft-20ft at the most and a 5 year old can roll through them until they get big enough to jump. This style of BMX still exists today and is quite popular from little kids to retired adults and most pros still compete in it. I turned pro at 15 and was doing quite well when in 2004 a new goal was born. It became official that BMX would be an Olympic sport in 2008--but it was to be a different kind of BMX. In an effort to bring the action sports market to the Olympics, a new style of BMX called SUPERCROSS was born. It started with the men that year, doing downhill BMX events with 20-40ft jumps that had no middle, then evolved into tracks that had 3 story steep starting ramps that generated speeds of 35-40mph in less than 4 seconds. I had built my reputation as a rider for having superior jumping skills as a girl, but even this frightened me a little. Many wondered if it would even be possible for women, if we would be able to overcome that fear. I decided then that no jump or starting hill would ever stop me from going to the Olympics just because I was gender XX.

In August of 2007 we had our chance to prove ourselves capable. The first women's Supercross race was held in Beijing at a test event exactly one year before the Olympics. I was 6 months out of a complete ACL recon and had been dropped from the national team, so I scrounged every penny from every sponsor who would help and funded myself across the Pacific. When the girls practice started I was on a mission to prove myself worthy of representing the red, white and blue and getting back on the team. After 20 min of practice on the lower track they opened the ramp up and I raced up the stairs with one of my American buddies in tow--I wanted to be the first woman ever down that ramp. We got up there 3 1/2 stories high looking down the ramp which dropped away after 10ft into a vertical descent that we couldn't see. That first jump was about 25 ft, which back then was fairly intimidating. Kim (my buddy) turned to me and said on 3? She counted 1, 2, and I took off... i'll admit, kind of sly of me, but I wanted to claim I was the first one to do it. She was milliseconds behind me, we pedaled down that ramp and held on for dear life showing the world that the American women were ready for Supercross. I earned my spot back on the team at that race, and my world of BMX changed as I new it.

3 years later we are jumping 40ft jumps, bumping elbows 8 wide down that ramp like its play time--things that even we doubted possible 4 years ago. Two weeks ago in France we had 34 women compete in the 2009 World Cup series finale, a new record. Every race our skills are challenged even more and its exciting to see the level of improvement all over the world. The Olympics will do that to a sport, push it to new heights, and I am proud to say I helped pioneer it for the women.

I didn't get my chance at Beijing last year. Our qualifying series for the games began at that test event in China. After attaining a 13 point lead in the overall standings and with our country carrying two women's positions, I was all but declared to go, until I crashed at the final Olympic qualifier losing not only our second country position but my own ticket to the games by one mere point. As devastating as it was to miss out, seeing my training partner/roommate and sole US women's representative Jill bring home the Bronze was an emotional moment for me on many levels. I was proud of her, our country, and what we had achieved together.

I did get my Bronze this year at the World Championships, its not Olympic, but I'm London bound--i'll get my shot this time. Who would have thought 19 years ago when I got that little Redline mini that it would take me all over the world? I think back to that moment when I saw the bike for the first time, and I realize I owe it all to my parents who listened to their persistent little five year old who insisted on a racing her bike instead of going to ballet practice. Thanks mom and dad, I don't think I was fit for a tutu.