The fairy tale, it turns out, does not include an Olympic medal
Chula Vista resident Alise Willoughby entered Friday as the world’s hottest female BMX cyclist, winning the World Championships two months ago and finishing first in all three of her quarterfinal heats Thursday at the covered 410-meter track outside Paris.
“Just because you show up and do everything right, the game doesn’t care,” the 33-year-old Willoughby said in the run-up to the Olympics. “You’re not entitled to anything. Once you grow to learn and accept that you just have to put in the work with no guarantees, I think you’re mentally more able to accept the outcome of things.”
She won her three quarterfinal heats Thursday easily and was second in the first of three semifinal heats Friday. Even after slipping to seventh in the next semi heat and on the verge of elimination, she finished second again in the final heat and secured a place in the eight-woman final. That dumped her back to third, which quickly became fourth, which quickly became fifth and then sixth with some subpar jumps scrubbing her speed.
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