At the young age of 16, Alise Post is already an accomplished gymnast as well as a professional BMX rider. She is spending her time this summer split between the track and the gym.
Post started riding in BMX races when she was just 6 years old.
“It’s really an addicting sport. Once you start, you don’t want to stop,” she said. “My brother actually got me involved with it. He started and he wanted me to not be a little wussy girl.”
Ten years down the road, and she’s now considered one of the top professional riders in her sport.
“I still don’t really realize it, that I’m a pro at something, because I’ve always just done it for fun and that’s just what it it. I just do it because I love it,” she said.
Post turned pro last year and was named “rookie of the year” by the American Bicycle Association. Because there really is no off-season in BMX racing, she’s on the road competing a couple of weekends a month nearly year round.
“I think that’s part of the reason I like doing it so much, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I get to travel all over and meet people all over the world.”
Post’s sports world isn’t confined to just the track — she’s also a standout in the gym. As a sophomore this spring she repeated as Minnesota’s gymnastics Double A vault champion.
Post placed fourth in the all-round competition, helping her St. Cloud Tech team to a second-place team finish. She said the state experience was phenomenal.
“It seriously feels like you’re in the Olympics. It feels so cool because in the auditorium that we competed in, you’re down on the ground, everyone’s raised up above you, there’s tons of people there,” she said. “Everything about it just feels so professional.”
The two sports feed off one another, according to one of her assistant gymnastics coaches.
“Her BMX is an asset to her gymnastics,” said Colleen Stark-Hawes, assistant gymnastics coach at St. Cloud Tech. “She has such incredible air sense. She’s almost like a cat, where she really understands air and how to land. And so, if anything, we hope that her gymnastics doesn’t injure her for BMX.”
Back on her home track at Pineview Park in St. Cloud, Post knows eventually she’ll have to pick between her favorite sports, and it won’t be easy.
“I love them all at the same level,” she said, before admitting, “I think racing will take me the furthest.”
wcco.com – 16-Year-Old An Accomplished Gymnast, BMX Racer
Gymnastics Coaching.com 