This summer while watching young athletes like Gabby Douglas, Missy Franklin, Jordyn Wieber and many other teenagers win medals and qualify for the Olympics, we just sat at home on our couches and did nothing. However, one student, freshman Cameron Moore, is on track toward being in the Olympics.
Moore is No. 1 in the country out of all 14-year-olds and fifth in the country out of everyone in BMX. He started riding seven and half years ago after coming out of motocross and is now sponsored by a team called Rennen Answer S Squared.
He’s won so many races that he has “no clue” as to how many he has actually won. When he wins a race he can either get a trophy, money or money that goes towards bike parts.
Moore said his biggest win was the one he worked hardest for. It was at the national championship last year in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Moore doesn’t “necessarily” have a coach, but considers his father, Mark Moore, the closest thing to it.
“I try to make him understand about the sacrifice he has to make,” Mark said. “Understand the times where he cannot be a normal 14-year-old boy and times where he can. I instill in him that discipline to work when you do not feel like you want to or you are tired.”
Being that good doesn’t just come from doing nothing. BMX takes a lot out of Moore’s free time and social life. He has practice three to four times a week and works out every day he doesn’t have practice. All of this happens after school so he doesn’t have much free time for friends.
“As soon as I get home from school [BMX] takes up all that time and basically all my free time,” Cameron said. “I get my schoolwork done in the car, but [BMX] takes up a lot of time so it affects my social life a lot. “
It also takes time out of his parent’s lives. Mark Moore spends 10 to 12 hours on training and practice on a normal week. On race weekends, the family usually leaves on Thursday nights and comes back on Sunday nights or Monday mornings.
BMX doesn’t just have an effect on Cameron’s social life, but also can hurt him physically. Moore broke his sternum once on the track’s gate. He leaned back, then forward before the gate dropped, and flipped over his bike and fell onto the gate. A worse injury can change everything though, especially when training for the Olympics.
“He can be the best, but it can all go away if he gets hurt a few months before [the Olympics],” Mark said. “It’s such a sacrifice for anyone to pursue the Olympics. He has four years to make it happen.”
This summer Moore attended a USA BMX Junior Development program to help start the process of getting ready for the 2016 Olympics. The riders learned things from nutrition to health and got to ride the tracks replicated to the ones from China and London in Chula Vista, CA.
Moore was also covered on the news this past summer. He was recommended by the owner of his local BMX track to be the one that got covered. Traveling across the country so much and doing well at nationals he was covered on Olympic Zone.
Although he has not yet been accepted to the Olympics, he says he is “hopeful.”
“I’m just going to keep racing and doing what I’m doing now,” Cameron said. “Whenever the year comes then I’ll go to the Olympic training center and ride the super cross tracks that they have there.”
–By Tori Nothnagel