Former BMX champion Sam Willoughby back to open track named in his honour

Champion BMX rider Sam Willoughby is back to open the track named in his honour – and begin a new project after his devastating accident. Read his inspirational story.

Former world BMX champion Sam Willoughby was back in Adelaide for the first time in two years on Saturday to open a track named in his honour.

It was the first day of filming on a documentary, Ride, about Sam’s life on the international BMX circuit – along with his American wife Alise, also a champion competitor – and the devastating training accident in 2016 that left him paralysed.

Ride will also document Willoughby’s evolution to coaching Alise and others, as well as his continuing rehabilitation.

“Medically, I’m doing really well,” he says. “Obviously, I have to keep on top of all the challenges that come with tetraplegia and being paralysed.

“A big part of my injury was my heart. Because it was a neck injury, it affected my respiratory system, and one of the biggest wins I’ve recently had is being able to get my heart rate over 100 again after not being able to do that for many of the first few years.

“I’ve been putting lots of work in the gym and a lot of cardio and I think my respiratory system is pretty much back to normal now, so I’m able to exercise.”

Alise says: “I think just the fact that he’s been able to find his smile again is the biggest thing.”

A backyard in the southern suburbs of Adelaide is where it all started for Willoughby, and it means a lot.

It was this very lawn in his parents’ Trott Park backyard – a lawn that had been sculptured and preened and loved by his father, Colin – that as a kid he promptly ripped up to build a makeshift BMX track for brother Matt and he to ride around on.

Former Australian BMX champ and paraplegic Sam Willoughby with his wife Alise in Adelaide for the opening of his BMX Track. Picture: Simon Cross

“We dug it up pretty good,” Willoughby, 30, says.

“My mum’s clothesline is still on a bit of an angle and my dad jokes that just now has got his grass back to where he wants it.”

It was the track, long since gone and replaced once more by a much-loved lawn, where Willoughby developed his love of the bike, honed his skill and began a methodical approach to the sport that saw him quickly rise to junior world champion, then world champion and Olympic silver medallist before a freak training accident in 2016 left him paralysed.

So it was fitting that, on Saturday, on this very lawn, the Willoughby family gathered again for a coffee and chat before heading to the official opening of the multimillion-dollar Sam Willoughby International BMX Facility, constructed just down the road from the home in which he grew up.

The O’Halloran Hill facility has been funded by the Marion and Onkaparinga councils, as well as the South Australian government, to provide world-class BMX facilities that Willoughby hopes will attract international riders and events.

“I got into BMX when I was six, thanks to a letter in the school bulletin at Hallett Cove South Primary School saying ‘come and try racing on a Friday night at Happy Valley’ and my brother and I went over there that Friday night,” Willoughby recalls.

“That was in 1997 and I raced ever since.

“I think back to my childhood riding at Happy Valley and Hallett Cove and at the time, there were great facilities, but this is a whole other level.

“I used to drive up that road for pretty much my whole childhood and it was just an empty field and now to see a world-class BMX facility there is a bit surreal.”

Willoughby jokes that the track will undoubtedly be saving clotheslines and backyards across Adelaide.

Sam Willoughby BMX park at O’Halloran Hill. Picture: Roy VanDerVegt

And while Willoughby’s parents might have appreciated such a facility when their bike-loving sons were growing up, there’s one person who’s glad it didn’t exist: Alise, 31, who muses that the lack of world-class facilities forced a teenage Sam to head to the United States for training opportunities, where the couple would eventually meet, fall in love and marry in 2018.

“I’m glad the track didn’t come up till now, because I may never have met Sam, I think he would have been here the whole time, I don’t think he would’ve come raced in America if this was here all along,” she says.

Willoughby agrees the track is world-class.

“It’s probably the first track I’ve been to since my injury where I’m like: ‘I wish I could ride right now’,” he says.

“It just looks great and it’s on a flat surface, so you’ve got to create a lot of your speed with your pedalling.

“It’s also the world’s first fully accessible BMX track, so I’m able to get all the way up to the start hill on my wheelchair.”

The global pandemic has meant it’s been two years since Willoughby has been home to Adelaide, instead has stayed based in San Diego, California, with wife Alise; the two focused on her (ultimately unsuccessful) Tokyo Olympic campaign.

The chance to see family again brings added importance to the weekend. But also that the couple has commenced filming on a documentary, RIDE, that will track Sam and Alise’s lives as they fall in love and conquer the world of BMX, before the training accident that changed their lives forever.

The documentary will use archival footage, coupled with interviews with family, past coaches and mentors to paint a bold picture of the Willoughbys’ reinvention in the world of disability.

“The documentary is about sharing our story of the ups and downs in sport and in life and the ability to adapt and to the challenges head-on the lessons we’ve learnt along the way and hopefully inspire people to embrace their own challenges,” Willoughby says.

He says, facing his sudden disability required the same traits as elite sport: “The ability to chase the unknown, there are no guarantees, and enjoy the process of waking up every day and trying to be better than you were yesterday”.

Alise adds: “We hope to shed some light and open people’s eyes that you’re not restricted to this little box (wheelchair), you’re more than that. We want to give a different perspective on everything.”

* RIDE is being produced by the Willoughbys, WildBear Entertainment and creative company Bursty. Support their work at ridethefilm.com