Isabella Schramm’s affinity for BMX racing can be traced way back to when she was six years old, when she dropped ballet dancing for a sport built on breakneck speed and pounding adrenaline.
Schramm, 20, is among a host of young guns competing at the BMX racing world championships in Brisbane this weekend – and a rising star worth keeping track of on the road to the 2032 Olympic Games.
Isabella Schramm. AusCycling.
“I started because my older brother started BMX, and both of my brothers kind of started,” Schramm, who contests the under-23 women’s finals on Sunday, recalls in an interview with nine.com.au.
“I was doing ballet at the time, but I was way too competitive with my brothers to just sit and watch them ride bikes around. So I was like, ‘I want to do this as well’.
“My mum told me, ‘Well, you can’t do both. You have to pick’. And I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna ride bikes’. I stopped ballet to start BMX.”
Just how wildly different ballet and BMX racing are is not lost on the Gold Coast product.
“I think it is pretty funny,” she says.
“Being the only girl in my family, ballet was probably a sport that I should have really liked, but I really didn’t.
“I’m so glad I started BMX because it’s so fun and definitely something I enjoy way more.
“I love the competitiveness of it, and I love the adrenaline rush that you get racing and going down the eight-metre hill. I just love everything about it – my lifestyle around BMX, the training and the discipline it takes as well. The whole process is so much fun.”
It would be an understatement to say she didn’t particularly enjoy ballet dancing.
“I hated it!” Schramm laughs.
“I really did not like it. I would just stand at the back and not participate.”
Schramm won the under-23 Oceania title in New Plymouth, New Zealand in February.
The under-23s and the opens had to race together because of a lack of numbers. In the third of three races, Schramm tore over the finish line before everyone else, beating not only her under-23 rivals but the opens.
Isabella Schramm in action. AusCycling.
“It was just an unreal feeling,” she remembers.
She idolises, and trains with, Saya Sakakibara, the champion Aussie BMX racer who won gold at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“She’s very good with the mental side of sport,” Schramm says.
“If she sees that you’re struggling with something, she’ll always come and give you some advice. It’s really cool having her in that environment.”
She also looks up to Caroline Buchanan, who competed for Australia in BMX racing at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Schramm has an older brother and a younger one. She reckons her competitive spirit comes from growing up with two boys.
“The three of us were competitive with everything that we did,” she says.