Arielle Martin (aka Arielle Verhaaren; born July 30, 1985) is an American BMX cyclist. She crashed in the quarter-finals at the World Championships held in

Taiyuan Taiyuan; Mandarin pronunciation: (Jin Chinese, Taiyuan Jin: /tʰai˦˥ ye˩˩/) is the capital of Shanxi, China. Taiyuan is the political, economic, cultural and international exchange center of Shanxi Province. It is an industrial base foc ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, on June 2, 2008, with the result that

Jill Kintner Jill Kintner (born October 24, 1981, from Burien, Washington, United States) is a professional American "Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) and professional mountain cross (four-cross or 4X) racer. Her competitive years were 1995 to 2002, 2 ...

, her friend and roommate at the Olympic Training Center in

Chula Vista Chula Vista ( ; , ) is a city in San Diego County, California, United States. It is the second-most populous city in the San Diego metropolitan area, the seventh-most populous city in Southern California, the 15th-most populous city in the ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, finished in sixth place, which was enough to guarantee Jill the only automatic women's spot on the US BMX Olympic Team. USA Cycling has a 17-race points series, and Jill had 129 points to Martin's 128. Kintner made up and went beyond a 13-point deficit with her sixth place and Martin's crash, became the one US Women's representative in the BMX racing event, and received a bronze medal, a medal she says was half won by Martin, who, after crashing, returned to the training center to help Kintner train. The two say that living together in the training center just made them able to push each other, as they remained neck and neck until Martin's accident. They had worked so hard together that Kintner characterized her win as bittersweet, at first more bitter than sweet. Martin finished a degree in exercise science in 2007 at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

. She was married in December 2007 to Michael Verhaaren and has taken his name except for when she is involved in bike competitions. They left their Utah home on separate missions, she to train for the

2008 Olympic Games The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, and he to spend a year deployed in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

with the US Army.Greg Bishop (2008-04-30)
Quests Separate Soldier and Olympic Hopeful
New York Times. Martin's father was a BMX racer. As a young girl, she watched him, then started riding a BMX bike at the age of two. At 15 she turned pro and in October 2007, became the third woman in the world to do a backflip on a BMX bike. Martin has said that missing the Beijing Olympics made her more determined than ever to remain at the top in BMX and to compete at the

2012 Olympic Games The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

. Martin was selected to compete at the London 2012 Olympics but a crash during a training run on July 30 in

, hospitalized her and left her out of the team, being replaced by

Brooke Crain Brooke Crain (born April 29, 1993) is an American BMX racing cyclist. Born in Visalia, California she was selected to represent the United States at the 2012 Summer Olympics in the women's BMX event. On August 8, 2012 during her first run in th ...

. Martin is a member of

the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Nontrinitarianism, nontrinitarian Restorationism, restorationist Christianity, Christian Christian denomination, denomination and the ...

.16 LDS athletes qualify for Olympics
Deseret News (2012-07-05). Retrieved on 2012-08-19.

References

* http://london2012.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/19/2008-crash-taught-bmx-cyclist-about-humility/?_r=0 * http://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/sltrib/sports/54464470-77/martin-bmx-olympics-beijing.html.csp * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUFDHDXIaZk * http://www.espn.com/action/bmx/story/_/id/8227925/team-usa-bmx-rider-arielle-martin-olympic-dream-crushed-second-time * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUDzG42Fyk * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHUDzG42Fyk * https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_acJPqVVe8 * http://health.abc4.com/articles/1924/Crash-and-Bloom

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Arielle 1985 births Living people American female cyclists American BMX riders Cyclists at the 2011 Pan American Games Medalists at the 2011 Pan American Games Pan American Games silver medalists for the United States in cycling Latter Day Saints from Utah Brigham Young University alumni 21st-century American sportswomen