'BMX has influenced my whole life': Wilson's prestigious Hall of Fame merit

BMX racing has been a passion of Wilson's for more than 40 years and that devotion to the sport will reach the pinnacle later this year when she is inducted into the BMX Australia Hall of Fame.

"It's am amazing thrill because this is something that I never saw coming," Wilson said this week.

"When you compete in the sport you love, as I do with BMX, it's just what you do and you don't ever expect to be recognised in this way.

"But I'm beyond grateful... it's just a fantastic way to be honoured and recognised."

Wilson took up the sport of BMX racing at the age of four and was hooked on the adrenaline from the first time she rode at what was the BMX track in Kangaroo Flat in 1981.

That first foray into BMX racing as a four-year-old set Wilson on the path to a what has been a career filled with accolades.

Among them are four world championships - the first won at the age of 11 in 1988 in Chile in front of a crowd of more than 75,000 - as well as 25 national championships, the most recent being in November last year when she won the masters, vet-pro and 45-49 women titles at Shepparton.

"I was very fortunate when I was four-years-old because I'd always had a passion for riding," Wilson said.

"From as young as two-years-old I was always riding my bike and kept breaking my training wheels to the point where dad (John) refused to continue to fix them, so I learned to ride at a very young age without them.

"My godparents lived next door and their nephews raced BMX, so they took me out one day and that's how I got into the sport.

"I can still remember my first day going out to the track and even now my godfather (Noel Hall) who is 82-years-old still comes out to support me.

"So not only has BMX touched my life, but it has touched the life of others too and that's what makes being inducted into the Hall of Fame so special because it's a lifetime of achievements being recognised."

Wilson did have 13 years away from the sport as she shifted her focus to work - she opened her hairdressing business Salon Hype on McCrae Street in the late '90s - and family, before she returned to competition when her then five-year-old son Aston took up BMX in 2009.

Three years later in 2012 Wilson was crowned Bendigo's Sports Star of the Year - the first BMX rider to have won the accolade.

"There's a great thrill that comes with BMX; when you're at the top of the hill waiting for the gate to drop... and then when it does you're just go," Wilson said.

"I raced in Sunbury last weekend and I still get such a tremendous buzz out of it.

"In the final last weekend my bike basically hooked up with the bike of one of the other girls; I was able to keep powering through, but that poor girl fell off and broke her arm, so it is a dangerous sport.

"But it's just the adrenaline for me. It is a full contact sport and just exhilarating."

While injury is one of the hazards of competing in BMX, Wilson considers herself fortunate given the length of time she has been competing that she hasn't spent more time recuperating from falls.

"I have broken my coxic bone before, which was in about 2010 and that's the only fall I've had where I didn't take any skin off my body," Wilson said.

"But that's the second most painful bone in your body to break because you are sitting on it... it was horrendous and still now causes me pain at times.

"But overall, I've been very blessed not to have had more injuries than I have."

Now aged 46, Wilson's passion for BMX remains as strong as when she first started competing in 1981.

"To be honest, I don't think I will stop competing until I probably have a really bad injury, but I know I do have to be sensible about it and that one of those injuries probably will happen... it could have been me last weekend that came down and my arm was broken," Wilson said.

"And I'm a hairdresser, so I need that arm to be able to work.

"I still love BMX and the Hall of Fame really does feel surreal because when you love something that you've been doing since you were four-years-old, you don't do it for any recognition.

"BMX really is a part of me and it has influenced my whole life."

Wilson will be inducted into the BMX Australia Hall of Fame at a ceremony on the Gold Coast on August 24.

"It will be so nice to share the night with family and friends. Unfortunately, my godfather isn't quite well enough to go, which is sad because BMX is his life as well and that's how much of an impact me competing can have on family," Wilson said.

In announcing her induction, the Australian BMX Hall of Fame said of Wilson: "Jaclyn Wilson has been collecting #1 plates for nearly 40 years.

"Beginning in 1981 and still racing to this day, Jaclyn is perhaps the most successful BMX athlete to compete on Australian soil.

"In 1989 she would claim her first national number 1 title, in 2023 she claimed her 25^th. The record books are still being written and Jaclyn will be chasing even more national glory later this year.

"In addition to dominating the Australian scene, Jaclyn is also a four-time world champion - testament to the hard work and dedication she has put into her training over such a long and illustrious career."