Will Johnston: meeting Sarah Walker

Sarah Walker at the AIMS Games.

You know when you were a kid and at Christmas time you'd finally get those sweet 90s threads from Santa you wanted and then you'd spend the whole next week wearing it and do everything in it?

Well, that's not actually what Olympic medallist and former world champion BMX queen Sarah Walker is doing in this photo. But it sort of looks like it, right? Kind of like she's sweeping the driveway as part of her childhood chores!

What she's actually doing, even as the most successful female BMX rider we've ever produced, is sweeping the Tauranga BMX track for the intermediate age school children competing at the 16th annual Anchor AIMS Games. She's making sure it's safe for them to ride on.

There were 100 other people there who could have done that job. But she went to the other end of the track and swept it because she saw a problem she could fix.

When we asked her about it, she said, in such a beautifully nonchalant tone: "I was out on the track and saw some puddles and I'm not racing today so I don't have to worry about my energy levels."

Just like it's no big thing that the person these athletes all want to be is sweeping the track clear for them to keep working towards that dream. Add to that she'd just done a few laps with a visually impaired AIMS athlete who idolises her and wears the signed shirt she gave him years ago like the aforementioned 'Santa scenario'. So she did the laps, had a great chat, gave him some pointers, and then gave him a new signed shirt!

This is someone who has a dozen national titles and 11 world champs medals.

Then she led a silent lap, with all the girls at the front, for a girl whose father had passed away.

There's all that stuff about Sarah that many people may not know, and she never brags about. Not even the 'humble brag' you and I would at least muster.

Like when Sarah was injured before the Rio Olympics and couldn't go, she was personally called by the president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and asked to be a member of the IOC Athlete's Commission — the link between athletes and the committee.

So she's part of a team that looks after the best interests of all the athletes who compete through until 2024. They also flew her to Rio and gave her a gold medal for being on that committee.

She's also really been that catalyst for changing an entire sport. When she started she had to compete against boys. It was a boy's bike she'd borrow. Now the split appears even amongst the genders. What's the only thing that's really publicly changed in that sport?

She's been prevalent, successful and always up for an opportunity to promote the sport.
Often, I imagine, for no benefit aside from it being just the right or fun thing to do.

She's involved in training, encouraging and supporting the girls who could beat her one day.

That's what you do when you love a sport, rule at it, believe in a process and the ability to grow new talent through just doing what you do well and passing it on.

One last thing ... if you won a silver medal at the Olympics, where would you keep it? Visible, I reckon! Sarah had to search for hers to bring to the Anchor AIMS Games. It was in a box, in another box, in a cupboard somewhere in her house.

She says the medal is great, but it was the work behind it and all the memories involved in getting to that success that were the point.

Sarah for mayor!

— Will Johnston is the local 9am-3pm host for The Hits Bay of Plenty 95FM. He's also a celebrant and MC. Follow Will on Instagram on @radiowill