Elite BMX rider, Saya Sakakibara, is a six-time national champion who will represent Australia in the Supercross event at her maiden Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Born in Japan, Saya began BMX at age four following in the footsteps of her older brother Kai. The Sakakibara family made the move to Australia in 2007 and the siblings joined Southlake Illawarra BMX Club and began competing on the junior circuit. It did not take long for Saya to rise through the ranks and claim multiple state and national titles and then silver in the Junior Elite BMX Supercross at the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships.
The NSWIS scholarship holder made her elite BMX World Championship debut in 2018, where she made the final and finished sixth. That same year Saya was runner up in the overall 2018 UCI BMX World Cup Series after winning the final event of the round in Argentina.
In 2019 Saya produced multiple top-five finishes across the World Cup rounds, a seventh-place finish at the UCI BMX World Championships, and narrowly edged world champion and Rio 2016 silver medallist Alise Willoughby to take out the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games test event.
Saya will head into the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games ranked 7th in the world.