2021 Tokyo Olympics: BMX rider Caroline Buchanan details inspiring return in search for gold medal

When a snapped sternum threatened her BMX career, Caroline Buchanan went to extraordinary lengths to race again. Now, she’s eyeing an Olympics berth.

Caroline Buchanan is unfazed at the prospect of travelling overseas without a COVID-19 vaccination.

Why would she be?

“If I stood and looked at the statistics of comas and paraplegics I probably wouldn’t sign up to what I do,” Buchanan, 30, told News Corp.

On Friday, Buchanan jets to Italy for two BMX World Cup races that are crucial to her hopes of qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

The goal is to finish on the podium in a self-funded trip that will cost north of $20,000. These Olympic Games qualifiers have popped up just in time, and while Australia’s team won’t be announced until June, the clock is ticking.

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The extreme sports star is used to dealing with danger, stress and more than her fair share of misfortune.

“I’ve had at least 10 (concussions),” Buchanan said.

“That includes three full blackout knockouts on the track, where I woke up and didn’t know where I was. When you hit the ground obviously you’re going to take a lot of skin off.

“So much more goes into concussion now, even diet. Trying not to eat inflammatory foods – your dairies, your glutens – because your brain is inflamed and it’s trying to heal.

“There’s a machine we can stand on now and it measures all of your balance, proprioception, eye movements, when your eyes are open and closed and your vestibular – your balance.

“We can get all these baseline numbers and go, ‘This is you when you’re healthy’.

“(After a concussion) I don’t return to looking at my phone, to work, to caffeine, to any of that stimulus, including high levels of training, until those numbers are back to normal.

“It can take anywhere from your standard two weeks to over a month to the point where my brain is ready to return.”

Brain injuries have become a frightening topic in sport, although Buchanan isn’t losing any sleep over possible long-term health scares.

“I don’t drink, I don’t party, I don’t do any of that – I guess that’s just as bad (as concussions),” she said.

Similar to coronavirus, why would she?

Caroline Buchanan has fought back from a life-threatening accident to be in the frame for Tokyo 2021.

Rewind to New Year’s Eve in 2017 and it’s not hard to see why Buchanan’s list of fears runs thin.

Buchanan was crushed in an off-road vehicle in Cooma, about 45 minutes out of her hometown of Canberra.

The life-and-death moment has been well-documented.

The roll cage snapped Buchanan’s sternum, punctured both of her lungs and her heart wall lining. The lights on top of the vehicle broke her nose.

The internal bleeding was the immediate threat as litres of blood and fluid filled her insides.

But long term it was the broken sternum which parked her bike.

Briefly, her mind wandered into what life would be like without two wheels?

Caroline Buchanan thought she would have to try V8 Supercars if her BMX career was over.

“I remember midway through thinking, ‘What other sports could I do?’” she said.

“Maybe I’ll be a V8 SuperCar driver — surely I can do that.“

But plan A was always to get back her health and back in the dirt.

Bikes have always been in the blood for Buchanan, who chose a helmet over a black belt when she gave taekwondo the kick as an eight-year-old to trail her family’s love for pedal power.

When surgery was deemed too risky in Australia, Buchanan went California dreaming, hoping San Diego doctors could stabilise her chest.

“I had to sign a dotted line (saying) you have the risk of 50 per cent mortality rate for any infection around the sternum bone,” Buchanan said.

Caroline Buchanan is mentoring Australia’s next generation of BMX riders.

Firstly, a titanium plate was inserted. Four months later and it snapped, unable to cope with the movement from breathing.

Luckily, it was third time the charm.

“I had two cardiothoracic surgeons in America and they said, ‘One of us is going to hold your sternum up, one of us is going to thread wire cables between your heart and your sternum.

“‘We’re going to come back through those 28 bolt holes we’ve put through your chest and going to wire it together’.”

Buchanan’s sternum was bolted, plated and wired back together.

For seven months she couldn’t wear a seatbelt across her chest – it had to wrap around her waist. She couldn’t lift her arms above her head.

Washing her hair was only possible while bent over.

By October, 2019 – almost two years later – Buchanan was back on the bike.

Medically, she needed to be cleared to crash again, rather than cleared to ride again, and the pandemic has helped her get a crack at qualifying for a third Olympic Games.

In 2008, when BMX made its Olympic Games debut in Beijing, Buchanan the teenager was Australia’s fastest rider – but ruled ineligible by her birth certificate.

In 2012, Buchanan spotted David Beckham in the crowd at the final in London and was told the eyes of the Royal Family were also locked on her.

The hot gold medal favourite selfdestructed, finishing fifth. Perhaps a fear of failure played its part.

In 2016, Buchanan crashed in Rio and missed out on the final. Again, she came in as World Champion and again, she missed the podium.

Caroline Buchanan was shattered after missing out on a medal at the London Olympics.

In 2021 there would be nothing to lose for the girl who lost everything except her bike and her passport in the 2002 Canberra bushfires.

Eighteen months ago Buchanan could barely do one push-up. She had shed 8kg of muscle, slimming down to 60kg.

“In BMX that power-to-weight ratio is huge,” she said.

“To get down that start hill and have that centimetre in front is a key part of the race, so that initial takeoff really stems back to that gym training.

“I knew I needed to get back to doing 140kg dead lifts, 130kg squats, 90kg power cleans and a body weight (68kg) bench press.

“In the last year and a half I’ve managed to build that back and be back at those power numbers.”

Buchanan owns eight world titles, having overtaken mentor Layne Beachley’s seven. She wants to get to 10, and the road ahead is being forged independently.

Caroline Buchanan is one of Australia’s most decorated BMX riders.

Having tumbled in the world rankings after three years out of the sport, the Italy bills for quarantine, flights, insurance, race entry, accommodation, travel and food in Italy have fallen to her.

“There’s no support of Australian Cycling or Australian Sport – but there’s a window of opportunity for this final Olympic qualifying and you’ve got to put yourself out there,” Buchanan said.

“I was out for so long that potentially I might’ve been written off.”

Buchanan prepared for the past two Olympics at the Australian Institute of Sport.

Now, she has built her home gym and assembled a team of about 10.

There’s daily visits from a strength and conditioning trainer, a chiropractor, physiotherapist and a skills coach

“Not having that (AIS) coming into my third Olympic Games has built so much accountability on me and I’ve been able to create the support network that I need,” she said.

WHAT IS BMX RACING?

“The start hill is like a three-storey building. So you ride out the window of your three-storey building, drop down to the street and by then you’re hitting about 60km an hour. The first jump is roughly 12-13m long. You take off, fly through the air and it’s a max, all-out sprint. The dirt is all soiltac, so it’s virtually concrete. It’s four straights, 45sec maximum, no white lines, seven other girls and first one across the line is the winner.” – Australia’s eight-time World Champion CAROLINE BUCHANAN

Originally published as 2021 Tokyo Olympics: BMX rider Caroline Buchanan details inspiring return in search for gold medal