It’s been a hell of a ride – Charlotte Worthington’s Olympic BMX reign is over

Charlotte Worthington’s reign as the women’s Olympic BMX freestyle champion is over after she was knocked out of the competition in Tuesday’s qualifying round in Paris.

Worthington, who has spoken openly of the struggles she has faced in dealing with the spotlight since her success three years ago, finished 11th out of 12 in the heats, with only the top nine advancing to Wednesday’s final.

The 28-year-old made history in Tokyo when she became the first woman to land a backflip 360 in competition, but stopped competing for a period in 2023 while she sought to rediscover her love of the sport. In that context, Worthington said she was proud to have competed at a second Olympics.

“I’m feeling a lot of emotions,” she said. “I’m really proud. I’m obviously gutted that my competition doesn’t go on another day but having three years of being the only person in the world to call myself the freestyle BMX Olympic champion has been fantastic.

“It’s been a hell of a ride and I’m really proud of the journey to get here. Up there I wasn’t fighting any other battle than the battle against myself. My personal goal was to be a two-time Olympian…I didn’t think I’d be standing here right now. I’ve achieved my goal.”

Worthington’s average score of 79.01 left her 4.25 points off the top nine, and more than 12 points off the standard set by the woman she beat to gold three years ago, world number one Hannah Roberts.

Her two runs lacked the big tricks being attempted by her rivals, and Worthington admitted it had not gone to plan.

“There were two bits of the run that didn’t quite come together,” she said.

“This course would really showcase mistakes and I made a mistake and went flat and lost my momentum.

“The way I was riding through qualifying, I was banking on my speed and height and flow and use of course to be where I was scoring so I made a mistake and it showed.”

After what she has called a “rollercoaster” in the last couple of years, Worthington said the experience in Paris had been “super enjoyable” and said her love of BMX is back.

She added: “I’ll absolutely not be able to stop riding BMX, I’ll probably ride until I can’t ride it anymore physically. I love this sport. There are so many elements to it, you don’t have to compete. It’s built me as a person and given me so much.

“I don’t know what the future holds but I’m still going to be dedicated to BMX and we’ll see where we end up.”

Kieran Reilly, the reigning world champion, front-flipped his way into the final, recording the top score of 91.21, well clear of American Marcus Christopher in second place on 89.48.