The Newsy Neighbour Magazine
June Issue #116
Article Provided By: Kyle Penn
Local Langdon Athlete Set to
Compete in BMX World Championships
Paige Moldenhauer isn’t like most 16-year-old girls.
Sure, she goes to school, and worries about homework, getting good grades, and
spending time with friends, but there’s something extra special about her.
Every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Paige gears up, grabs her bike, and heads
from Langdon over to the Okotoks BMX Club to practice for her upcoming trip:
representing Canada at the UCI BMX World Championships in Rock Hill, South
Carolina.
Many of us who lived through the 80’s and 90’s have a
cursory knowledge of BMXing simply through cultural osmosis – and having
watched the movie Rad one too many
times. Although it’s been a few years in between, the sport of BMX is still
alive and well, and just as intense as fictional Rad rider Cru Jones made it out to be. Starting at the top of a
steep incline, a typical BMX race involves riders speeding through a series of
jumps, corners, and rhythm sections, handlebar-to-handlebar, to see who can
make it across the finish line first.
While chatting with Paige, I took a moment to ask her how
she got involved in the sport. “My brother started a year before me,” she
explained. “So, I tried it on one of the club’s BMX Days, and I really liked
it, so I joined too!” That was three years ago. In the interim, Paige has
racked up a serious of accomplishments that would make most athletes turn green
with envy. “I was second in my age category when I started,” Paige told me,
“and then during Provincials, I placed sixth, and then in Nationals, I got
eighth, and now I’m going to worlds! It’s really exciting.” Paige’s brother
continues to race competitively in BMX as well, and just narrowly missed
qualifying for Worlds himself – meaning he has his sights set firmly on making
it into the 2018 Championships.
Despite all of her monumental achievements, the thing
that struck me most about Paige was how incredibly humble and down-to-earth she
was when describing her goals and accomplishments to me. There was a sense of
pride, sure, but there wasn’t a hint of arrogance or entitlement. It’s clear
that Paige – despite her incredible ability and talent on the track – is just
doing this because she enjoys it. “When you’re in a race, it’s an adrenaline
rush. You never know how it’s going to go. It’s a lot of fun!” she enthused to
me, when I asked her about the competitive element of BMX racing. “To me,
competing has made BMX better. There’s more to aim for, and to work towards.
It’s a great experience, too, to be able to travel and do everything.”
Even with her formidable set of skills and her intrepid
attitude, Paige is well aware of what she’s undertaking in stepping out onto
the world stage. “I’m very nervous!” she admitted as we chatted about the
upcoming Worlds competition. “I follow a bunch of these famous BMX racers on
Instagram, and they’re getting all prepared and posting all about it. It’s a
big, big thing, that everybody from all around the world is coming to, so it
makes me nervous, because some people dedicate their whole lives to it, and are
practicing and working towards it every single day. They don’t do it for fun,
they just do it to be competitive, so it’s a little scary, for sure!”
When Paige heads down to Rock Hill to compete during
the World Championships from July 25-29, she’ll be racing in the 16 Novice
class on her trusty Haro Blackout XL. “My coach (Chris Nakumura) has been
helping me prepare,” Paige expressed with gratitude. “He’s been critiquing me
on where I need to improve, whether it’s going through corners, or anything
like that. He’s been a huge help.” Between her coach, her Crew team, and her
family, Paige certainly has a dedicated support network around her, who will all
cheering her on to find success down in South Carolina come July.
“I think it’s an exciting experience for her,” Paige’s
mother, Carole Moldenhauer, told me. “I didn’t know if we’d ever get the chance
to go to Worlds, because it’s all over the place. It was really far away last
year, in Colombia, but now it’s close enough for us to be able to travel there.
It’ll be an experience; it’ll be fun!”
Throughout it all, Paige has done well to focus on the
joy of the sport and to ignore the pressures that competing on the world stage
inevitably bring with them. With her eyes set firmly on Olympic-level
competition in the coming years, Paige left me with some tried-and-true BMX
wisdom when it comes to dealing with situations like the one she’s facing. “Huck
it!” she exclaimed, and then shone some light on what this turn of phrase
means: “If you’re faced with something, like a jump or whatever, and you’re
like ‘I don’t know what to do,’ you just jump over it! You huck it!” Surely,
somewhere, Cru Jones and the rest of the fictional crew from Rad are smiling at
how the BMX torch is being picked up by the next generation of racers.
We wish you the best of luck in Rock Hill, Paige! Have
fun, give it your all, and most importantly, don’t forget to huck it!
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