Peachtree City’s Alexis Alden wins gold in BMX Racing at Junior Pan-American Games 

Last weekend, Peachtree City’s Alexis Alden, 18, a BMX Racer, won gold at the 2025 Junior Pan-American Games in Paraguay. Alden was competing against other 17 and 18-year-olds in the junior woman class for the UCI international level.

Alden started racing at age 6 while living in California, after her dad, a professional Motocross racer, first put her on a BMX bike at age 5. For the last six years, she and her family have called Peachtree City home. Alden has placed consistently in the top three in competitions across the world. 

“Obviously you have ups and downs with racing, but ever since I was seven or eight, my dad started taking me to the USA national races and I would win some, I would get second. I was always making the main events and so from there on, it was kind of just a growing process of getting better and better.  I still lose races. I was at the World Championships and I didn’t win. I got third, but that’s still a really good accomplishment and it’s just more to grow on,” said Alden.

The World Championships this year were in Denmark. The Pan-American games were in Paraguay. Winning the Pan-American games is exciting for Alden, because it is put on by the Olympic Committee and sets her up to earn points to go to the Olympics.  She said, “Winning earned me a spot for the adult Pan-American Games in 2027 in Lima, Peru. I’m hoping to rack some up points and be able to compete in the 2028 Olympics.”

Alden loves to BMX race. She said, “I love being able to go fast, going fast and trying out new things. And I really enjoy riding different places in different parts of the world. They all have their special quirks with how they’re built based on the area of the world that they’re in, which is really cool.”

All that travel is really expensive, so Alden is grateful for her sponsors, Albe’s Bike Shop, Speedco, Box BMX and USA Cycling. She also credits her parents for underwriting her training and experience. 

There’s not just a money component. There’s a serious commitment of time. She trains on average about 3 hours a day. She says she does strength and conditioning including “explosive workouts in the gym” as well as weightlifting for about an hour and a half a day, and spends another two hours on the track. She works on “track work and working on your skills and speed and gate speed, plyometric fast speed” and says some of her time is what she calls “messing around a lot on the track,” trying new things and getting out of her comfort zone with “manuals, and jumping.” And she says she does a lot of sprints on the bike. Alden has a California-based coach, Brandon Devo, and also is coached by her older brother, who used to BMX race. 

The sacrifice is worth it, both in winning and in life lessons. Alden says BMX racing has taught her some valuable lessons, “Honestly, just to never give up. All paths of your life are going to be different and they’re going to be difficult. But there’s always an outcome that you can use, even if it’s negative or positive, for the better on how to grow.”

How did 2025 graduate Alden become an elite BMX racer while attending McIntosh High School? “It was not easy, but I was obviously able to graduate and I’ve only ever done in-person school. I had to send many emails, many talks with my teachers, principals and counselors and stuff like that to be able to be gone for a week or two at a time. But I was completely able to catch up because I love school, I love learning, but I also love competing too. So it’s nice to do, be able to do those two things and succeed in both.”

Careers in BMX racing usually only last until the early 30s, according to Alden, so she says that college is in her future. She’s looking at universities in Florida that would be near some elite level training facilities for BMX. She either wants to be a chemical engineer or study sports medicine. 

Her message to our community is that “You can do anything that you put your mind to. Starting this year, I had no clue I was going to go to six different countries. I had literally no clue. So always expand your horizons.  Honestly, I’m just truly blessed from God that he’s given me these opportunities to go to these places and do what I love competing at the same time.”