Kai Sakakibara’s heartbreaking injury the latest in a run of horror incidents for Australian BMX team
The tragic, serious injury to promising BMX rider Kai Sakakibara only months out from the Tokyo Olympics is the latest in a horror run for the Australian team, writes Reece Homfray.
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The weather gods must have known something was seriously wrong when ferocious wind and rain forced the Bathurst Super Cross World Cup to be called off before it even really began on Sunday.
How could the BMX world go on racing like everything was normal when one of its brightest young stars, 23-year-old Australian Kai Sakakibara, was fighting for his life in hospital?
So, the weather decided to call it for them.
The wild conditions had already forced the cancellation of day one on Saturday just hours after Sakakibara crashed during his opening round heat and suffered a serious head injury.
He was treated by doctors, sedated and flown by helicopter to Canberra Hospital in a critical but stable condition and had surgery to relieve pressure on his brain.
The multiple state and national champion – both in Australia and Japan where he spent a large portion of his childhood – fell heavily face-first in his first round heat at Bathurst on Saturday, which he was using to try to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics.
His BMX career has now been put on hold, according to his family, while he fights for something far more important.
When his competitors – including the reigning Olympic champion American Connor Fields – returned to the Bathurst track on Sunday they assembled on the start ramp to form the letters ‘KAI’, showing he was front and centre of their thoughts.
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But they never made it onto the track.
Organisers later announced that “regrettably” the event was cancelled due to the inclement weather.
But it seemed about right given what Sakakibara and the Australian team were dealing with, which sadly has become an all-too-common feeling in recent times.
His injury is the latest in a series of devastating accidents involving Australia’s BMX team since the 2016 Rio Olympics.
In September 2016, just two months after he competed in Rio, Sam Willoughby broke his neck on what was otherwise a routine training day in the US.
Willoughby was left paralysed from the chest down and is now in a wheelchair, although his recovery has been a source of inspiration to everyone who has been part of his journey.
Then in December 2017, fellow Rio Olympian Caroline Buchanan almost lost her life in an off-road vehicle accident on private property just outside of her home town in Canberra.
Buchanan was left with two collapsed lungs, a broken sternum, internal bleeding and a broken nose and was not cleared by doctors to resume racing for almost two years.
Both Willoughby and Buchanan were in Bathurst when Sakakibara crashed on Saturday. Willoughby was supporting his wife, US Olympic silver medallist Alise Post, and other athletes including Aussies Anthony Dean and Lauren Reynolds who he now coaches, while Buchanan was back racing as she attempts to make it to a third Olympic Games in Tokyo in July.
Regardless of whether Buchanan makes it to Tokyo, her recovery just to make it back on the bike is triumph enough, as is vision of Willoughby standing at his wedding or riding a stationary bike and lifting weights in his gym.
Sakakibara’s fight is as big, if not bigger than what they overcame when the tight-knit cycling and BMX community was rooting for them.
Sakakibara’s parents Martin and Yuki, and his sister Saya – who is also chasing her Olympic dream in Tokyo – say that support is needed now more than ever.
“We need you all to be with us and Kai throughout the next weeks and months,” the family said in a statement.
“We are in Canberra with Kai right now and the best thing for us is to keep busy and continue doing everyday things, so please feel free to contact us as you normally would.
“We understand the road ahead will be long and difficult, we are staying positive and taking things day by day.
“There isn’t much we can do at this point, but Kai needs your support and your positive energy sent his way.
“Please keep thinking of Kai #KaiFight77 and stay with us on his journey for the months ahead.
“For now we are waiting to see how things progress and our focus will be on his long-term rehabilitation.
“Kai’s BMX career will be put on hold for now.”
reece.homfray@news.com.au
Originally published as Kai Sakakibara’s heartbreaking injury the latest in a run of horror incidents for Australian BMX team