Crazy Al Cayne
Through out the years there’ve been several talented black women who’ve competed in professional BMX racing. Not just here in the states but also abroad. Their history reaches as far back as the hay day of BMX racing all the way to modern day Olympic level racing.So let’s take a look at the history of Black Women in professional BMX Racing.
MANON VALENTINO (France):
Mannon Valentino is a French BMX cyclist who has many accolades in the sport. She began riding BMX at the age of 10 years old with the help of her older brother who also raced BMX. Manon burst onto the scene in 2008 by winning the Junior women’s World Championship. She also won a silver medal in the Junior Women’s Cruiser World Championship in 2008.
She’s a six-time French champion, Double European champion and European championship silver medalist. She’s also won a silver metal in Elite Women’s cruiser at the 2009 World Championship and a bronze medal in Women’s Elite class in 2013. But that’s not it! Manon also won Supercross World Cup series races in 2011 and 2019 and in 2020 she became the Supercross World Cup Bronze medalist. Valentino is a 2 time Olympian and made it as far as being a finalist at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games,
By the age of 34, Manon has achieved great things in the sport on and off the track. She’s even done modeling and was featured on a few magazine covers. She’s currently racing for Auber 93 BMX and recently finished 2nd in the BMX 2Tours indoor race in the Elite Women’s class. So be on the look out for Mannon this year at the big World Cups, World Championship and European National Races to see where she takes it next.
AXELLE ETIENNE (France):
Axelle is another French professional BMX racer. She started BMX racing at the age of 8, encouraged by her brother Patrick, who was already racing BMX. She was a natural at the sport and quickly joined a couple of BMX clubs 2012. She won her first French Cadette Champion titles in 2013 and 2014. In 2015, as a Junior, she won almost all the major competitions in her category
During July of that year, she won gold at the French Championships, the European Championships as well as the World BMX Championships in Zolder. In 2017 Étienne won the French national title at the young age of 19. Etienne also won the bronze medal at the 2019 UCI BMX World Championships. She went on to win the French world championships in 2020, 2021 and 2024
Axelle is also a 2 time Olympian and competed in the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo. She placed 7th in the Women’s BMX racing final. At the 2024 Paris Olympics she placed 7th again in the finals. Quaifying for the Olympic BMX finals is no easy task and Etienne did it twice. Axelle has a bunch of sponsors supporting her and she’ll be on the hunt to add more trophies and medals to her collection in 2025 so be sure watch her BMX racing journey as it unfolds this year
DOMINIQUE DANIELS: (United States)Â
Dominique Daniels is an American rider who was a power house in women’s BMX racing during her active years. At the age of 12, Domonique’s dad Tim got her a small Honda dirt bike after seeing a track in Chandler Arizona. They use to drive past the track all the time. Little did they know it was actually a BMX track so her dad returned the honda and got her a Huffy. That started a chain of events that lead her to becoming a pro at age 15, then, in 2008, she became the ABA’s Girl Pro Champion. In 2009 she became the ABA’s National #1 Women and in that same year she became the NBL Elite Women Champion. Back then, we had two BMX racing sanctions in the US, we had ABA which stands for the American Bicycle Association and the NBL which stood for National Bicycle League. The two sanctions merged to become USABMX and it’s currently the only BMX sanction in the US.
And speaking of that, Daniels was a back to back National Bicycle League Elite Women’s Champion in 2009 and 2010. But what’s even wilder than that is, besides winning the NBL championship she also won the ABA, UCI and the Disney cup in 2010. And then she did it all over again in 2011 by winning the ABA, NBL and UCI Championships along with the Music City Cup Championship! Domonique was putting in work!
So by 2012 Domonique held the record for the most Elite Pro Titles with a total of five titles. And she did it consecutively for 5 years straight! Domonique was also one of the pioneering BMX racers who benefitted from the BMX scholarship programs which was added to select colleges that already had cycling teams.
She actually turned a track and field scholarship at LSU down for a BMX racing scholarship at GCU which is Grand Canyon University. She went on to receive a masters Degree in public health administration. She also used to tour the country with her dad doing BMX clinics for the youth and amature riders after her retirement from BMX Racing. Domonique had a legendary run in professional BMX racing!
SHANAZE READE: (United Kingdom)
Shanaze Reade is a legendary British BMX racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. Reade began racing in 1998 at the age of 10. A local track operator named Bob Field, whose son also raced at the time, became her mentor. She was previously a Track & Field enthusiast but apparently got bored with the100-metre sprint and the Shot Put after five years in those sports, before discovering BMX racing.
Shanaze was Known for her power which she developed by racing against boys and older amateurs, including men. In 2005, she raced the National series with the men all year, despite being only 17 years old. She said in an interview that she’s usually always top 3 when racing the guys. She had been racing them for 2 years and was almost the National Champion but had to settle for the No 2 spot. She goes on to say The boys in BMX are all cool and It’s really quite fun to watch when she kicks their booties.
Her BMX victories at junior level include three World, eight European and five British BMX championships. She won her first 2 professional races in 2006 in the Girls Pro class at the ABA Winter nationals in Phoenix, Arizona. Also In 2006, she became British National No.1 in the 19 & Over Elite Men class after racing the National series with the men all year. Then She won the World Championships in Brazil in August 2006 despite an earlier injury to her foot.
Reade is also a track bike champion. In 2007 she won a gold medal with Victoria Pendleton at the UCI Track World Championships in the women’s team sprint competition. It was only her second track race ever. Not only was she the first ever to win a track championship in her rookie year, she completed the feat after only six weeks of training. She had originally taken up the sport to keep her fit for BMX competition. In July 2007 she also became the Women’s Senior UCI BMX World Champion! Shanaze has won the UCI BMX World Championships three times. She’s a Junior Gold Medalist and she won a gold and silver medal in the Elite Women’s Time Trial
Having successfully defended her crown at the 2008 world championships, Reade was named the sole woman member of the United Kingdom’s BMX Olympic team by British Cycling on july 9th 2008. She was the favorite to win the gold medal in women’s BMX racing at the 2008 Olympics. After some rough qualifying rounds during the Olympics Shanaze made it to the finals but unfortunately couldn’t finish the race after she crash. Shanaze did better in the 2012 London Olympics placing second, first and second in the three heat semi-finals, but wound up finishing sixth place in the final.
Reade was one the best in the BMX racing game during her peak years. She even won a Redbull Hill Chasers Uphill race on her BMX bike against a bunch roadies and cross country riders. Nowadays Shanaze is doing her thing as a motivational speaker, she’s also an active travel advocate in the West Midlands and she’s been a coach to a number of professional riders. You can also find her commentating for some of the big BMX and MTB competitions and she still hits the pump tracks on her Dirt Jumper. But above all that she was inducted in to the British Cycling Hall Of Fame in October 2024. Shanaze is BMX Legend!!
MIYANDA MASETI (South Africa)
Miyanda Maseti’s father bought her first bicycle when she was four years old as a birthday gift. She instinctively knew how to control it, so she encouraged the patriarch of the Maseti family to experiment by removing the training wheels on the same day that she got on a bike. Little did she know 15 years later she would be etched into sports history.
After just two years of racing in BMX, she was selected to go to her first World Championship in Rock Hill, South Carolina. That’s when she started seeing that she can make something of herself in the sport.
She’s a South African BMX racer, A multiple-time national champion and She claimed a sixth national title when she won the African Continental Championship in 2024. With that win she secured a place in the 2024 Summer Olympics making her the first black woman to represent South African cycling at the Olympics. She joins the ranks of fellow South African BMX Pros such as Kyle Dodd and Sifiso Nhlapo in qualifying for the Olympics. Miyanda Maseti is just getting started and has a bright future in professional BMX racing, So keep an eye out for her in 2025 as she continues to make her mark.
JAMIE LILLY (United States)
Jamie Lily is one of the great trail blazing pioneers in professional women’s BMX racing! Jamie got hooked on BMX at the age of five, She was inspired by her dad Greg who had ridden for factory White Lightning. He won the San Diego Qualifier for the 1978 Yamaha Gold Cup. Lilly would go on to earn seven National Age Group No.1 plates as an amature and a healthy list of Pro wins.
She’s an American former professional “Mid School” bmx racer whose prime competitive years were from 1987 to 2004. She became one of the first female professionals of the American Bicycle Association at 15 years old. This was back in 1998 when the ABA for the first time created a female professional division in the sanctioning body’s history. The NBL, had restarted their pro girls class in 1997 after their first attempt between 1985 and 1987. Lilly also became one the ABA’s first national number one Pro Girls .
She became UCI Jr Woman World Champion in the year 2000. Jamie also won the UCI Jr Women Bronze Medal at the World Championship in 2001. In the NBL, she became North American International Pro Girl Champion in 2000 and NBL Super Girls Grand National Champion in 2001.
In ABA she would win:
- Pro Girls World Champion in 2000, 2001 & 2003
- She was the Pro Girls Grand national Champion in 2000 & 2003
- She was also ranked Pro Girls National No.1 in 2000 & 2003
- And In 2002 Jamie was ranked Pro Girls National No.2
Lilly won more pro women’s races than anyone in 1999. She was ranked no. 22 of “GOrk’s Top 90 BMXers of the 90s” and she was the highest money-making girl in the sport in 1999 according to gOrk’s top 90 list. Jamie is also ranked #3 on the all time overall ladies pro win list. She would race again at the Stars N Stripes nationals in South Park in 2009. She wound up coming in fourth place in the Pro Girls class.
After Jamie retired as a professional, she made it her goal to stay within the industry. She wound up working for several top industry apparel companies like Troy Lee Designs and Alpinestars Jamie later worked for the motocross brand Motonation as their marketing coordinator.
Through out her career Lily has made made 113 pro mains with 60 wins and 87 podiums and she’s raced for some legendary BMX brands like GT bicycles, Robinson, Free Agent, Fox, Supercross, Kastan, Powerlite, Boss, Auburn, and Hyper Bicycles. And to top off her incredible career, she was inducted in to the BMX hall of fame in 2019
SHANAYAH HOWELL (Aruba)
Shanayah has been racing BMX since she was five years old. During her career she became champion of Aruba in several competitions. In 2006 she won the UCI BMX World Championship in her age group. She won gold in Costa Rica in 2018 when she moved up to the Women’s Pro Elite class. Then In 2020 Shanayah was ranked 9th in the world in the UCI BMX Women’s Elite Pro class. Howell is also a bronze medalist of the Central American and Caribbean Games which was held in San Salvador in 2023. All this lead her to qualify to compete in the 2024 Paris Olympics! It was a monumental moment for the Aruban Cycling team since it was 28 years since they’ve last made an appearance at the Olympic.
Shanayah Howell became the first athlete from Aruba to qualify for an Olympic BMX Racing event, and the fourth Aruban athlete to qualify for the Olympics in a cycling discipline. She also the first Aruban female, to qualify for BMX Racing at the Olympics. And the first Aurban cyclist in 28 year to Qualify for the Olympics. That’s a lotta first! Unfortunately Shanyah didn’t make it out of the qualifying rounds during the Olympics, but she cemented her mark in history as a trailblazer for Aruban BMX Racing and cycling as a whole. Shanyah was also the flag barer for her country during the closing ceremony of the Olympic. She said
“It is an honor for me to have achieved this and to represent my country, Aruba. I have sacrificed a lot and worked hard since I was little for this moment.” ~Shanayah Howell
Kim Johnson (United States)
Kim Johnson is one of the trailblazing pioneers of Women BMX racing. She was actually one of the first girls to compete in BMX Racing. And Back in those days BMX allowed women to compete in Nationals but they weren’t included in the national points ranking system. There also weren’t any professional classes for women offered by any of the BMX federations back in those days and back then there were several BMX federations that were doing races. Kim went to high school with another BMX legend, Pete Loncarevich and she sometimes had to race him and other future male legends when there were no other women to race. And you know she was out there beating the boys. But when she did race the girls their class was called the Powder Puff class.
Powder Puff was a term that came from motorcycle racing, where women’s races were a halftime attraction. In the BMX Racing world, Powder Puff was the name of the women’s class. But that all eventually changed.
Kim is also credited as one of the early factory girls back in the hay day of BMX racing. She rode for the legendary SE Bikes factory team and then went on to ride for the Vans team. During her time on the Vans team she became one of the first girls to appear in a BMX print ad. She was also one of the first to appear in a Vans BMX commercial.That’s Legendary! After her time on the Vans team, Kim also rode for Howie Cohen’s Kuwahara Factory Team. Kim also became one of the first African American BMX champions!
She made an appearance at the 2015 USA BMX Winter Nationals and it would be her last appearance at a BMX national. Unfortunately She passed away in May 2015 at the age of 49, due to heart complications. Today’s Elite Women classes are a direct descendant of the Powder Puff classes of Kim’s era and have helped establish Women’s BMX racing. That paved the way for all of the women In this list and of course the rest of the women BMX racers across the globe throughout the history of the sport.
KITTIE WESTON-KNAUER (United States)
Now I can’t finish this list off without giving an honorable mention to Kittie AKA Miss Kittie Weston-Knauer. Miss Kittie is one of our great Ambassadors of the sport and currently is the oldest BMX racer in the country at 76 years old. She’s been racing for 36 years. Miss Kittie advocates for the sport wherever she goes and she’s focused on helping younger, underprivileged kids get into the sport. She started racing BMX as a dare from her 10 year old son in 1988 during a mother’s day race when she was 40 years old.
When miss Kittie started racing there was no women’s cruiser class. She was responsible for changing that by working with sanctioning bodies and let them know that plder women want to be a part of BMX racing. She finished 7th in the UCI Worlds Championship in the 45&Over women’s cruiser class. And she’s the oldest women to compete in the UCI Worlds Championships
So there you have it! Black women BMX pros who were pioneers, trail blazers, champions and future champions of the sport. And I’m honored and proud to give all of these great women their flowers by showcasing their achievements here on SugarCayne.com. I hope these great riders inspire some of you to try out BMX racing.
Lets Keep The Conversation Going!
I know I probably missed some riders so if you have any information on them please add them in the comments section below. Any photos, updates, etcc that you’d like to add would be grately appriciated. Any future and potential sisters who race BMX that we should be checking out? Share them here.
