Connor Fields competes at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 on Aug.19, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Alise Willoughby’s Sunday at the UCI BMX Supercross World Cup in Shepparton, Australia, concluded much her like her Saturday did, with the Rio Olympic silver medalist standing atop the podium. Only this time, she wasn’t the lone American to do so.
Reigning Olympic BMX champion Connor Fields, fourth in Saturday’s Round 1 of 2 at the world cup event two hours north of Melbourne, made up for it with a first-place finish Sunday, topping the general classification by clearing the course in 33.869 seconds when it counted. His time was nearly a second ahead of Colombia’s Carlos Alberto Ramirez Yepes, two years Fields’s junior, who finished in 33.960.
World medalist David Graf of Switzerland grabbed third in 34.009 seconds, while 2016 Olympian Corben Sharrah’s finished in 12th place.
Fields is currently ranked No. 13 in the world, and his last world cup podium finish came in September of 2019 when he won silver in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
“Had fun and felt great out there all day,” Fields wrote on Instagram following Saturday’s finish. “Hard to be excited about a 4th, but it’s great to see all the hard work put in this off season showing with lots of laps won and the fastest lap of the day. Thanks to everyone in my corner.”
Clad in a rainbow jersey, Willoughby cleared the Shepparton course beautifully as well, her 37.129-second time putting her name at the top of the leaderboard for the second time in as many days. Her biggest challenge this time came not from the Netherlands’s Laura Smulders, who proved a thorn in her side last season, but from teammate Felicia Stancil, who finished second in 37.406 seconds, less than half a second behind Willoughby. France’s Manon Valentino completed the podium in 38.181 seconds.
Willoughby is ranked No. 2 in the world and, according to her husband’s Instagram, donated her Shepparton winnings to fighting the bushfires that have raged across Australia in recent months.
Blythe Lawrence is a journalist based in Seattle. She has covered two Olympic Games and is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
