After winning gold in women’s BMX at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Saya Sakakibara has now been awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the general division for her service to sport.
Saya's OAM achievement comes in the wake of an extremely difficult but ultimately rewarding few years for her family. Saya and her older brother, Kai, were for a long time both associated with elite-level BMX success until Kai suffered a traumatic brain injury when he crashed in his opening-round heat of the UCI BMX World Cup event at Bathurst in February 2020. At age 23, his BMX career was over and his life forever changed. The impact of her brother's ordeal has always weighed heavily on Saya while she also had to endure her own set of challenges – race crashes, concussions and crippling self-doubt – to achieve global BMX success, including being crowned UCI BMX Racing World Cup champion in 2023 and 2024 prior to the Paris 2024 Games.
After following her journey for a decade via regular reports in this publication, as well as on social media, local fans were overjoyed to see Saya win gold in Paris in August. Since then Saya has been feted in a heartwarming hometown event, immortalised in a Helensburgh town centre mural, featured on a stamp, and had her name added to the Illawarra Olympic & Paralympic Tribute Wall.
In late 2024 Saya moved from Helensburgh to the Gold Coast with her family, after living in the 2508 postcode for most of her life.
The Order of Australia recognises Australians who have demonstrated outstanding service or exceptional achievements. 2025 is the 50th anniversary of the awards, with 732 Australians featuring on today's honours list for various contributions.
Locals honoured include Wollongong couple Hong-Phong Le and Teresa Tran, recognised for service to the Vietnamese Community of Australia; the head of medical services for the Illawarra Hawks, Phillip Driscoll OAM; and Fire and Rescue NSW Superintendent Gregory Houston, who received an Australian Fire Service Medal, one of the highest honours in firefighting.
Anyone can nominate any Australian for an award in the Order of Australia. If you know someone worthy, nominate them now at www.gg.gov.au.