Hi, I'm Arielle Martin.
In between training sessions right now.
I'm grabbing a bite at my favorite sushi spot.
I come here a couple times a week -- it's delicious.
Just taking some time out, before I gotta go back out there.
I started racing BMX when I was five.
But the story goes I was off training wheels when I was 2 1/2.
My dad raced in the late '80s.
I don't remember not being on the bike.
You know, as I long as I can recall, I've been at a BMX track, playing in the dirt,
and on two wheels, so.
I don't remember my first race -- it's just, it's always been a part of my life.
And then with this Olympic format that got kinda got introduced in 2007 -- along with
that, we got a World Cup Series in that format, so I get to travel all over the world and
train and ride at different tracks, and then compete at tracks.
We usually have 4 to 5, plus the World Championships every year, World Cups that are all over the
world.
So we get to kinda showcase the sport at the Olympic level -- show people what it's like
and kinda help build programs in other countries.
BMX is an explosive sport -- it's 30 seconds long.
Maybe 40 seconds, depending on the course.
We'll see probably about 38 seconds in London.
See, there's no room to really just pace yourself, like, it's an all-out sprint.
It's super -- you know, you're gonna see moves made, you're gonna see crashes.
But the difference being, you know, through qualifying, if I'm in second place, and I
know I'm, like, moving on, I'm not gonna stress about that.
I'm gonna be patient.
And then when the game drops for the final, anything goes.
You know, everyone's gonna be making risks and doing moves out there to get into position.
In 2008, I crashed at the final qualifier.
I was the lead girl to go.
Myself and my training partner -- at the time, Jill Kintner -- we're separated by 14 points.
And we both thought we were going.
We both thought we had two woman's positions for the United States.
I was gonna be lead, and she was gonna be, you know, the coaches pick or whatever.
And going into that last race, I was feeling good -- all I needed to do, you know, was
make the semi-final, and I had my spot on the team.
And coincidentally, I crashed in the quarter final.
I didn't really get hurt physically that much.
But the cards fell the way they did and, you know, certain countries got girls into the
final, and we ended up losing our second woman's position.
At the same time, Jill ended up advancing to the finals.
And she ended up beating me out by one point.
So it came…
I want from being the lead girl to go to not going at all, by one point, within a matte
of about 30 minutes, which was devastating at the time -- because my in-laws had booked
tickets.
I thought I was there.
I was already giving interviews like, "yeah, I'm going to Beijing.
I'm the lead girl to go."
And then it didn't happen.
I think the biggest difference between now and Beijing was my maturity and patience.
I was kinda hotheaded, like, jumpin' the gun all the time.
The reason I think I crash was just cause I was like -- I was in a qualifying position
when I crashed, but I wanted to win it, and I was just pushing too hard.
That's the biggest thing I really learned this time around in this qualifying was I
just needed to be patient and to be smart and to read the tracks, to read the riders.
And it worked out.
I got my spot on the team this time.
So going into the games now, I just get to focus now on, you know, the work that needs
to be done to win a medal.
Physically, I think I'm there.
And mentally, I think I'm there.
It's just a matter of getting it done when the gate drops.
Today was a pretty intense training session.
Primarily focused on gates and starts, working that big first straight.
That's really super important within the race -- it's a lot easier to win the race from
the first turn than it is from behind.
Every BMX track is different, which is what's really cool about our sport, you know.
As an athlete, you have to be adaptable to every different kind of course.
At the Supercross World Cup format, which is what I was training on, and what I'm gonna
be doing for the games here, we start on a 3 1/2 sprint start ramp.
Pretty tall, we're reaching speeds of 30 to 40 miles per hour over those first few jumps.
And those first few jumps, there's typically gonna be two or three done that first straight
away.
And they'll vary in size and shape.
What we have here behind me is a London replica course.
We built this track as close as we could to what London will be.
Obviously, to give us a huge advantage going into the games, being very familiar with the
kind training we have.
What drives me on and off the track is the opportunity to succeed.
I really like to challenge myself.
I love being challenged.
Setting new heights and accomplishing them and then setting them even higher.
Really just reaching towards what's possible.
It's cliche to say, but my advice is never give up.
Every great athlete, every champion, every Olympian has overcome so much to get to where
they are, because they didn't give up.
You're not gonna find an Olympian that had it all handed to them on a silver platter,
guaranteed.
Everyone I know that's made it this far has had to overcome some major obstacle to get
here.
So when you hit that obstacle, when you hit that tripping step, pick yourself up and keep
on going.
Anything is possible, really.
And when I was ten-years-old, I wanted to be an Olympian.
I saw that '96 team, I wanted to be an Olympian.
Well, I wasn't doing a sport that was an Olympic sport, but I believed that one day I was gonna
be an Olympian.
And as I got to be 17, 18, and they started talking about the Olympics -- okay, it's real.
We're going in.
You're gonna be there in 2008.
And then I broke my back, and they said I'd never ride a bike again --they said that was
impossible-- I made it possible.
Any time someone tells you you can't do something, there's always a way to reach for it.
It might take some time -- it took me 21 years of racing BMX to become an Olympian, but I
got there.
So it's worth the energy, and it's worth the work.