‘I’ve been working towards this for five years’ - Sam Willoughby Appointed as BMX Race – National Team Coach

Six years after being told he would never walk again, Sam Willoughby has returned from the US to tackle a challenge of a different kind - guiding Australia's best young racers to Australia's next BMX Gold medal.

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Australia’s only BMX Racing Olympic medallist Sam Willoughby will join the Australian Cycling Team as BMX Race – National Team Coach, a role the thirty-year-old has had his eyes on since beginning his coaching career over five years ago.

The former world champion and recent inductee into the South Australian Sport Hall of Fame is excited to add his competitive flair to BMX racing in Australia with this new role.

“I’ve been enjoying coaching, and when the opportunity came up to lead my own country and the next generation of BMX riders in Australia, it was something that I just couldn’t turn down,” Willoughby said.

“The opportunity to come in and bring a new flavour and work with all the potential talent in Australia right now and, put my spin on it and lend some experience and knowledge that I've learnt over the years.”

It was a clear goal for Willoughby after his accident in 2016 when, during a freak training accident at his home track in Chula Vista, Willoughby fractured his C4, C5 and C6 vertebrae and was told he would be a quadriplegic.

Willoughby felt like he lost his identity after the crash in 2016 and began the long, gruelling road to recovery.

Throughout the process, Willoughby continued to amaze doctors with his progress and with his soon to be wife, Alise, supporting him constantly throughout the process, Willoughby discovered his new identity and threw himself into coaching Alise.

It was with a similar determination that Willoughby decided he would walk down the aisle at his 2018 wedding to Alise and even dance, just over two years after his first devastating prognosis.

Willoughby imparted all his knowledge from years of training and competing into coaching, which led to remarkable success.

Alise took out her first world championship title four months later in 2017 and grabbed her second rainbow jersey two years later.

Willoughby has coached some of Australia’s greatest BMX riders, including three-time Olympian Lauren Reynolds and two-time Olympian Anthony Dean.

“The human element of the sport is the biggest thing,” Willoughby remarked on what he has learnt as a coach over the last five years.

“I had a way that I went about it and I tried to set a plan with the ingredients that I thought that’s what we need to do.

“But then coming in and working with a broader range of individuals, the real art of it is moulding the plan to the individual and working around that individual and trying to get the best out of them as people.

“I believe that's really important in modern sport.”

Willoughby will shape the BMX Racing program in an exciting time for the sport with a home World Championships approaching in 2026 at Sleeman BMX and the 2032 Olympic Games in Brisbane.

“In the short term, I want to re-establish a bit of culture around the BMX race program and just bring some excitement and passion back into the athletes of trying to be their best on a daily basis,” Willoughby said on his immediate goals.

“With the amount of young talent in Australia, I don’t see why we cannot have a nineteen-year-old gold medallist. It is very possible and the way the tracks are going and the way that some of these young kids are growing up riding on these big Supercross tracks from an incredibly young age.

The two-time Olympian is impressed with the abundance of talent making their mark at home and on the USA BMX circuit and can see similarities between himself and a few riders.

“Josh (Mclean) has been winning quite a bit over here in America and I’ve been impressed with how he’s riding and how he’s going about it,” Willoughby said.

“It is kind of a similar path to what I lead in that he just came over here by himself and just showing up on the weekends and doing it as best you can, which is great to see.

“In the younger age groups, you have the likes of Teya Rufus and Sienna Pal who are both exciting to watch and have enormous potential.

“I'm excited to work with them and be a bit of a sounding board for them and, on top of this, implement things on the training side, but as someone that's sort of been there in the, in the recent times, I can hopefully elevate them with a bit of confidence to reach their full potential.”