Editor’s Note: On July 31 Nikita, who did not qualify for the finals, gave the Sun this statement: “What a week!! In Paris, for the Olympics … riding on the biggest stage for the sport that I love, BMX Freestyle, exchanging pins, meeting new friends … and while I may be disappointed in my Paris 2024 results, I am so grateful to have qualified to be here for my 2nd Olympic Games!”
From Nikita’s Instagram: “PARIS 2024 OLYMPICS • What a time!
Another incredible experience of a lifetime with some of my best friends representing BMX and the @swissolympicteam ✨
Unfortunately competition-wise things didn’t go my way. While physically I was completely prepared in the leading weeks, mentally I was suddenly fighting intrusive thoughts mid-tricks (causing crazy anxiety and panic attacks) and though we tried everything, I could not get into a place of confidence and flow to put together the run I wanted, missing finals.
It truly sucked for it to be happening during the biggest competition in the last 4 years, after all the work put in, and it’s hard not to feel like I let everyone down. But after a nice cry and time to digest, it already feels like the learning and growing experience that I know it was, helping me understand that a competition result does not define me, my ability, or my love of the sport.
Getting to watch all my friends in finals the next day put that huge smile immediately back on my face. I’m so proud of us. For everything. Competing under this type of pressure is not easy and everyone did the best they could in that moment. We got to represent our countries and our sport on the world’s largest stage.
I cannot thank coach @danielwedemeijerbmx for being with me through all of this, day in and day out and the rest of my team as well as my family and sponsors. Regardless of the result this week, I truly felt all the love from all of you.
Time for a rest, reset, and some fun riding to find myself again. I LOVE BMX and we’re not done yet!”
The eyes of Sonoma Valley will be watching 27-year-old Nikita Ducarroz as she rides on July 31 in the BMX Women’s Freestyle event, also known as Women’s Park, at the Paris Olympics. She qualified in June in Budapest for the Paris games with a “golden ticket.” In an interview in French in Paris, Nikita acknowledged that she’d like to have another medal but, “in the end, it’s just to nail my run, do all the figures I want to do and we’ll see if it’s enough for the judges.”
Born in Nice, France, Nikita grew up in Glen Ellen in a French and English-speaking household. Her parents are Nicole Abaté, former member of the Sonoma Valley Unified Board of Trustees, and Jean François Ducarroz, a Swiss native. She rides for Switzerland, her father’s home country, where she is the top athlete. But on an Instagram video of her getting all the Swiss gear for Paris, as Nikita walks by a bigger-than-life action shot wall mural of herself, she says humbly, “Oh, there I am.”
This is Nikita’s second Olympics. In 2021 in Tokyo she took bronze at the inaugural Olympic Women’s BMX Freestyle event. She told the Sun that having been in the Olympics and been on the podium is a “valuable experience that will lessen some of the stress. Because I sort of know what to expect going into it, what I like, don’t like, I can really prepare better.” But she acknowledges that the competition has become stiffer, as many more riders have joined the sport, including younger ones.
Being French speaking makes Nikita right at home in Paris. Another plus factor is that this time her parents and youngest brother will be there to watch. In Tokyo, under pandemic strictures, no spectators were allowed.
Ducarroz is a standard bearer for the sport worldwide. The Swiss American rider is currently ranked 5th in the world. She took silver in the 2021 UCI BMX World Championships in Montpellier, gold at the 2021 European Championships in Moscow, and silver at the Urban Cycling BMX Freestyle World Championships in Abu Dhabi in 2022, among other podium finishes. She has been twice profiled in Forbes magazine, this year as “a rider to watch ahead of Paris.” Among her sponsors is Red Bull, her “dream sponsor.”
All her success at this hyper-demanding sport has been intertwined with anxiety, which she has struggled with since age eleven, when she got so anxious she could hardly leave the house. After she quit soccer, her parents insisted she do a sport, so she started mountain biking. A YouTube of BMX intrigued her, so she made little ramps of plywood and crates to try it out on her street in Glen Ellen. Then, because she wanted to go to the skate park in Maxwell Park, she began to leave the house. Soon she wanted to go to Santa Rosa to train.
Her cyclist friend from the American team, Angie Marino, speaking in a broadcast booth during the X Games in Ventura in July, highlighted the tremendous effort Nikita still has to make to overcome her anxiety. For her, it is not just about riding, but actually about traveling to the event, especially by plane. Nikita traveled with the whole Swiss Olympic team by train to Paris. Her photo was beneath a banner headline in the Geneva paper announcing their departure.
The Olympic medalist explains that riding helped her conquer her fear. And she is grateful to her parents for making it possible to work with a sports psychologist who helped her “break down all the walls I was putting up for myself.”
With a friend, Nikita has started a mental health project for athletes, MindTricks. She said it all began when she made the decision to post real things on Instagram, to be more transparent, not portray herself as if everything were “all good.” She posted candidly, sharing stories of down moments, bad days, challenges.
For July 31 we wish her the joy of riding, as she described it in an interview with The Mindset Experience: “When I just have that joy of riding my bike, it’s when I can ride the best. … When I’m not overthinking things, I’m not scared, it’s when it all works out.”
By Anna Pier
Thanks for the feature of my niece and one of my biggest teachers and SHeros since she was born. I’m beyond proud of Nikita and her parents, Jean François and my sister Nicole.
We are so happy to have someone as wonderful as Nikita to write about. Everyone’s SHero!