SA BMX champ Miyanda Maseti prepares to enjoy history-making Olympic ride

Six-time South African champion Miyanda Maseti’s dream of going to the Olympic Games has become a reality. Photos: Supplied

By Yanga Sibembe

7 Jul 2024

BMX champion Miyanda Maseti will become the first black woman to represent South African cycling at the Olympics in Paris.

Her father, Lonwabo, bought Miyanda Maseti her first bicycle when she was four years old, as a birthday gift. She instinctively knew how to control it, encouraging the patriarch of the Maseti family to experiment by removing the training wheels on the same day that she got on a bike.

At that time, neither she nor her family imagined her natural instinct would propel her to become one of the most influential figures in South Africa’s BMX scene.

Yet, 15 years later, what seemed like an insignificant moment (other than being evidence that little Miyanda was daring and a natural on a bicycle) has led to her being etched into sports history.

She will be the first black woman to represent Africa in BMX racing at the Olympic Games when she kits up in Paris in a few weeks.

“I also recently found out that I’m going to be the first South African black woman to ever go to the Olympics for cycling as a whole,” Maseti told Daily Maverick when quizzed about how it feels to be the first African woman to compete in BMX racing since it was introduced at the Games in 2008.

“It’s really cool that I can be on that stage, just being myself and giving people something to look forward to,” added the 18-year-old, who celebrates her 19th birthday on 26 July, the day the 2024 Paris Olympics officially starts.

BMX Miyanda Maseti Six-time South African champion Miyanda Maseti will off to Paris for the Olympic Games. (Photos: Supplied)

Relieved and nervous

To book her history-making berth at the Games, Maseti was victorious at the African Continental Championships in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, in April. She clinched gold after outpedalling home favourite Hana Taylor and compatriot Kendall Coombes.

There have been some instances in the past of athletes missing out on a ticket to the Olympics despite technically qualifying, so Maseti was unsure whether she would be part of Team SA in France.

Fencer Juliana Barrett qualified for the 2016 Rio Games via the continental route. But because of the stringent qualification criteria of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc), she was denied the chance to travel with the team to Brazil eight years ago.

This strictness has since been relaxed, especially after Barrett took legal action against Sascoc, which the fencer won when the federation agreed to a financial settlement with her in 2022.

“I felt relief more than anything [when my qualification was confirmed]. I was kind of unsure if they would pick me to go [even though I had qualified]. I thought something would happen, because my brain did not want to believe that it was going to happen for me,” said Maseti.

“So, when I got [the confirmation] I was more relieved than excited, but also nervous because it’s the Olympics.”

The six-time South African champion is based in Kempton Park, Ekurhuleni.

Through her achievement, Maseti, who will begin her adventure as a tertiary student in Germany studying software engineering just a week after the Games end, has joined South African BMX racers such as Sifiso Nhlapo and Kyle Dodd in qualifying.

Educational journey

The target has been on her radar since she was 14. “My biggest goal is to get to the Olympics,” she told Daily Maverick in 2019.

After his daughter qualified, Lonwabo Maseti said: “We started working towards [the Olympic] goal after seeing that there has never been a female athlete from Africa doing BMX who has competed in the Olympics.

“That then became a bigger goal [for Miyanda]. She wanted to be the history-maker and she fought towards that goal.”

Maseti Senior, who for the longest time has been his daughter’s manager and coach, spoke about what her journey has taught him as a parent. Especially because he was initially apprehensive about his little girl following in her older brother’s footsteps after big brother Lwando had developed an interest in BMX racing.

Read more in Daily Maverick: How breakdancing became the latest Olympic sport

“What we can do as parents is to rally behind them and not force the kids towards a certain sport that we may like, or sports that we think can be best for them,” he said.

“It was the case as well with Miyanda and myself when she started with BMX. She just loved it from the very first time she went to watch her brother compete. Then she nagged me until I succumbed. I didn’t like her doing the sport, though I did not have a problem with her brother doing it. But I did not like to see her falling and hurting herself.

“But because she developed passion for the sport, showed commitment and dedication, then started setting goals [I had to support her].

“After just two years of racing in BMX, she was selected to go to her first World Championship in Rock Hill, US. That’s when she started seeing that she can make something of herself in the sport.”

Because South Africa lacks adequate facilities to prepare for an Olympic onslaught, and to make sure she is in the best possible position to make her historic Games debut memorable, Maseti is training in the Netherlands. She said her journey had made her “calmer”.

Read more in Daily Maverick: South African fencer Harry Saner jousts his way to Olympics

“I used to put so much pressure on myself. I used to only need to win, in turn sacrificing the enjoyment. So, I’ve had to learn to enjoy the process, because I kind of hated it.

“I’m still trying to learn to enjoy the process of [rising up the ranks]. It’s taught me patience – to be patient with myself and learn everything at the pace that everyone needs to learn at.”

She is now in her first year as an elite racer after proving her quality as a junior, and Maseti is not putting too much pressure on herself. “These Olympics are more of a learning experience for me because I’m still – and I don’t want to say it in a bad way – a beginner. I’m very new to the elite scene. I’ve only had about four races in the elite scene. I’m still trying to find where my place is now,” Maseti said.

“So, these Olympics are just about learning. They are an opportunity that I had to grab. It’s going to be about learning as much as I can until I get to the next Olympics,” she added. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Relieved and nervous

Educational journey