Hannah Roberts turns emotional after 4th successive BMX Freestyle title at 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships

21-year-old Hannah Roberts became emotional after winning her fourth straight freestyle BMX world championship title at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow.

On Tuesday, August 8, the American cyclist stunned the world by winning the title without having to perform for a second time, unlike her competitors.

On Monday, the 2021 Tokyo Olympics silver medalist cycled an impressive score of 91.04 points competing against five top-notch Chinese cyclists. None of them could match Roberts' 91.04 points score that she achieved within the opening round. With this, she not only clinched her fourth straight title but her fifth overall as well.

Besides Roberts' gold medal at the world championship, China's Sun Sibei claimed the silver medal with an 89.10 score, and bronze medalist Zhou Huimin with an 87.90 score.

Celebrating her milestone win, Hannah Roberts expressed to the reporters after the championship:

“I’m super grateful. I’m still emotional."

Furthermore, she shared her experience of competing against Team China and still being able to make it.

“I mean, Team China, they’re coming on strong. They have some of the best riders in the world and they’re so motivated to keep it going,” Roberts shared her views on Team China.

Furthermore, she talked about how she handled the pressure of competing against the best riders:

“They placed second through sixth and that’s incredible for an entire team. So going into the event, I knew there was some big stuff I wanted to pull for the first run. I did what I could.”

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How Hannah Roberts gained interest in BMX Freestyle Park?

Hannah Roberts at BMX Freestyle World Cup

Hannah Roberts was eight years old when she gained interest in BMX Freestyle Park through her cousin, Brett Banasiewicz, one of the world’s best BMX riders. Since then, she has been working on her skills to become the greatest BMX freestyle cyclist.

She won her first world championship in 2017 in Chengdu, China. In 2018, she achieved a bronze medal in Chengdu. After that, she continued displaying her talent by winning gold medals consecutively in 2021 and 2022.

In an interview with Olympics.com, Hannah Roberts was asked if she felt scared during her runs. She accepted that fear was the biggest factor while riding. However, it depended on how the rider uses it to enhance his/her performance.

Furthermore, she explained how she dealt with fear:

“The way I overcome my fear is that I’ll do tricks over and over again into the foam pit until I make sure that I’m safe doing it on a real ramp."

Hannah Roberts added that she still felt nervous while performing tricks. However, she tries to make herself believe that she will be able to accomplish the trick and then goes for it on the real ramp.