FOR

BMX racer

Kye Whyte on early beginnings, epic crashes and the ultimate motivation

Dubbed ‘The Prince of Peckham’, Kye Whyte discovered his love for racing at the age of three, when he joined his big brothers on the local BMX track, where his dad was a coach. Eldest brother Daniel and middle brother Tre both went on to race for Great Britain, so Kye had some impressive tracks to follow in. Not that he was ever daunted. With a host of junior titles under his belt, Kye’s first pro season in 2018 saw him swipe a silver medal at the UEC European BMX Championships right here in Glasgow. The following year, he recorded his first ever UCI BMX Supercross World Cup victory on the Manchester track he now calls home. Then in the summer of 2021, the world sat up and took notice when Kye won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics, the first British male rider to do so. Two years on, as Kye prepares to take to the challenging course at Glasgow BMX Centre once again, the tenacious 23-year-old says he only has eyes for the top spot…

I think it’s a great idea that they’re bringing all the UCI World Championships together in Scotland for the first time. It’s going to be such a good event for everyone to be competing in the same place at the same time. The BMX Racing Track has changed a bit since I raced here last year, so it’ll be different, but I’m excited. My only goal is to go there and win. It’ll be hard but I believe I can do it.

I really hate losing. The Olympics is a massive highlight because I was the first one on Team GB to ever win a medal. But it was silver. I know that’s not a failure, but I also know I could have won.

Hopefully my family can come to watch me race in Glasgow. They weren’t able to go to Tokyo, but they were all there on this big screen after the race. I knew my brother and my dad would be on it but everyone showed up, the kids, and all my other family friends. They were all going wild. It was such a surprise, I nearly cried.

My mum always showed up to watch when I did Dancing on Ice last year. I think she was more there to meet the other celebrities! Doing the show was so much fun, but I feel like I was cheated. I made the semi-finals, but the three finalists all had a background in performing. Until I put those skates on, I never realised how hard that sport is. The amount of training and the level of skill is beyond me. I only had two days to learn new routines and get them right. With racing, I just do the same thing over and over again!

I think to succeed in BMX Racing, you have to be very brave and strong-minded. It’s a really challenging sport and it’s hard on your body. You get injured a lot, and some of those crashes can be mentally bruising too. It can also be hard at competitions when you’re having a bad day and your teammates are achieving their best results. Of course you have to be happy for them, but you want to be achieving your best too, so it can feel a lot like you’re letting the side down.

My worst crash happened when I was 13 and I’d just joined the GB talent team. We went to a race in Crewe where I was competing with older boys. Someone fell off in front of me and I crashed, knocking myself out. I was in an induced coma for about five days. I had a bleed on the brain, a broken jaw, and the left side of my face was basically missing. At 13, I don’t think I fully understood how serious the injuries were. I think if it happened to me today, I probably wouldn’t get back on the bike. Being able to fall off and get straight back on again was a skill I learned when I was very young. My dad helped run Peckham BMX Club so he was always there when we were training. When I first started, if he saw me getting in trouble, he would never swoop in to save me. He used to just let me fall off, pick myself up and get back on the bike. He needed to make sure I wasn’t too scared to do it, but I loved it from the very first time.

When I was younger, I had eczema and asthma, which isn’t great for riding in dirt and dust. My skin would get really bad, and I wouldn’t be able to breathe, then my mum would make me stop. I used to cry so much because I loved it. Eventually, we made a plan where I’d get off when things started to flare up so she could give me three pumps from the inhaler. Then I’d have to get naked behind a towel so she could quickly cover me in cream!

After BMX Racing was introduced to the Olympics in 2008, I knew for sure that’s what I wanted to do with my life. My oldest brother Dan joined the GB team aiming for the 2012 Olympics, and Tre and I were right behind him in the training system. You start on the School Talent Team; then move up to Olympic Development; and when you’re approaching 18, you move to Manchester, where the Team GB training centre is, and become a full-time athlete. Tre moved to Manchester in 2013, then in 2017, it was finally my turn.

The age difference between my brothers has stopped us being too competitive with each other. Dan retired before I got to the age where I could race him, and at that stage, Tre was already fast enough to beat him. I used to race Tre sometimes in Manchester but when I was getting fast, he retired too. Even now, when all my brothers get together, there’s an argument over who is fastest but at the end of the day, I’m the best!

QUICK Q&A Career highlight?

All the times I’ve won!

Plan B?

I haven’t got one yet. I’ll probably retire when I’m 28 so I should probably think about that!

Guilty pleasure?

Domino’s Texas BBQ pizza.

Off-duty pastime?

I can quite happily chill all day playing my PS5.

Words of wisdom for budding riders?

Just have fun and make friends. BMX gave me so many opportunities to travel and meet new people. It’s a great experience, at any level.

BMX-ing kept us all on the right path. My dad was super-strict and he’s a proper sporty guy so if it hadn’t been BMX, he’d have had us doing another of his sports like golf, tennis or football. Everyone in Peckham knew us as the BMX kids, so no one ever gave us any trouble and I’m not the kind of person that would go looking for it.

Every time I go to London, I’ll go back to the club and see the kids. Some of them are really cheeky and already think they’re the best in the world, so I’ll just pop my head in to keep them on a ground level. A lot of kids come to Peckham BMX Club to train because we take it so seriously there. Sure, you can have fun, but when it’s time to train, it’s time to train.

I am inspired by where I’ve come from. The statistics of doing well as a young athlete, or a young black kid getting out of Peckham, are not great. All the odds were against me. There was an experience that Tre had which really motivated me. At one point, he could have gone to the 2016 Olympics, but someone stood in his way. At the time, he was the only black person on the team. I feel like his dream was stolen. I can’t live it for him

I want more kids from all over the world to be inspired to get on a BMX. The 2020 Olympics brought the sport to the attention of so many more people who had never seen it before. We even had celebrities like Jamie Oliver tweeting about BMX. It was unreal. People talk about me being a role model and of course there will be kids who see you doing great things and want to do the same. But at the end of the day, I’m just riding a bike. I’m just doing my job.