(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BMX rider Hannah Roberts at COR BMX Park in South Jordan on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
Sports
How a remote Utah business park became the center of BMX Freestyle in the USA
Hannah Roberts has won just about every major women’s professional BMX freestyle title out there. Not just one of every kind. Closer to nearly all that exist. Roberts, 23, won her sixth consecutive UCI BMX World Championship in December, making her the only woman to have ever won that event. She won gold at both […]


Hannah Roberts has won just about every major women’s professional BMX freestyle title out there. Not just one of every kind. Closer to nearly all that exist.
Roberts, 23, won her sixth consecutive UCI BMX World Championship in December, making her the only woman to have ever won that event. She won gold at both Pan American Games in which the discipline was offered (2019 and ’23). And last year, when X Games first made women’s BMX freestyle part of its program, she won that gold medal, too.
This week, Salt Lake City will host the X Games’ BMX, skateboarding and motoX events, and Roberts can’t wait. It’s not just the prospect of winning more hardware that has her hyped, but also something much rarer.
“This will probably be the only event in my life,” she said, “that I’ll be able to sleep in my own bed and then go and compete.”
Roberts moved to Utah in March to train at a facility started by a local dad who wanted to give his daughter, an up-and-coming BMX racer, a better place to practice. In doing so, Roberts may become a BMX trailblazer once again. COR Athlete, the facility built last year by Joe Sirlin in a remote office park in South Jordan, has become the hub for USA Cycling’s BMX freestyle teams. Roberts was the first pro athlete to move to the area to train there, but Sirlin said he believes she won’t be the last.
“We have multiple other people exploring relocating here full-time to train and to live in Utah,” Sirlin said. “So our goal is to help get athletes like that here, but also help get the next generation a place to evolve as an athlete.”
Building a solution in South Jordan
The trip to France with the Team USA BMX squad was supposed to be a learning experience for Sirlin’s teenage daughter, Keir. Yet it was Sirlin who got an education.
A former construction foreman and facility and event manager for various major sporting events — including Formula 1 and Moto GP races, PGA tournaments, Super Bowls and X Games — Sirlin couldn’t help but notice the ramps at the 2023 World Cup Fise in Montpellier were much larger than anything he’d seen in the United States. He asked Ryan Nyquist, a BMX legend and Team USA’s coach at the time, about the discrepancy.
“When we first saw these big ramps, I asked him, just person to person, ‘Hey, why does the United States not have anything this big for the riders to work on?’ Because we don’t, and Europe does. Australia, Japan, China — all these countries have these facilities, but we do not. And I asked him how we could change that.”
This April 2018 photo provided by USA Cycling shows Hannah Roberts speaking at the UCI Freestyle BMX World Cup in Hiroshima, Japan. The 16-year-old Roberts, already one of the best BMX freestyle riders in the world, is helping blaze a trail for women in the Olympics. (Kyle Carlson/USA Cycling via AP)
Nyquist said USA Cycling had struggled to come up with the funding to build a World Cup-caliber course. So, Sirlin came up with a solution.
Calling upon his contacts in the construction industry, he facilitated the construction of a temporary course inside a newly built business park off the Mountain View Corridor in South Jordan, minutes from where he and his family had moved in 2021. He called in heralded BMX park builder Nate Wessel to design the course with input from the athletes who would represent Team USA in Paris, including Roberts, who was training in Nyquist’s backyard. She requested a spine — two ramps connected at their apex by a small ledge) and a step-over (where the landing area is higher than the takeoff area).
“Those two things freak me out most on courses,” she said. “So I’ve got to ride them a lot, I guess.”
More BMX riders are calling Utah home
At the time, the course was meant as a quick fix to prepare Team USA athletes for the Paris 2024 Olympics. When it opened in March 2024, Olympic athletes — including Roberts — traveled there from around the country for training camps every two weeks until the Summer Games began in late July. When they left France in early August, they brought back four top-eight finishes. That included a silver medal won by Perris Benegas in a women’s competition that saw Roberts, the favorite after taking silver with a broken foot in the event’s debut in Tokyo, place eighth despite breaking her hand and injuring her shoulder in a crash during warmups.
With those results, USA Cycling was in no hurry to see the course dismantled. In January, it extended its partnership with COR-Athlete for at least another year.
“This facility has been a game-changer for our BMX Freestyle program,” Jim Miller, the chief of sports performance, said in a news release announcing the extension. “The world-class facility and the partnership with COR-Athlete enabled our team to push their limits and perform at the highest level on the world stage. We’re thrilled to continue this collaboration and build on the success we achieved in 2024.”
Likewise, Roberts was reluctant to lose her favorite practice facility. So, she rented out her house in North Carolina to make a new home out West.
“When I finally pulled the trigger, I didn’t know X Games was coming,” said Roberts, now one of Clearfield’s newest residents. “So it was legit this. My whole focus was this park and trying to, one, help it succeed and be able to stay around, but also just be able to train here.”
Roberts has accomplished both.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) BMX rider Hannah Roberts at COR BMX Park in South Jordan on Thursday, May 15, 2025.
She trains at the facility about three hours a day, she said, but she spends many more hours working behind the scenes. Sirlin pays her to be part office manager, part event director and part youth coach for camps hosted at COR-Athlete.
Others have since followed Roberts’ path. Angie Marino, a pro rider who performed a BMX stunt in the movie “Bad Moms,” also moved from North Carolina to Utah, Sirlin said. And Roberts said athletes like Nikita Ducarroz of Switzerland, who will also compete at X Games Salt Lake City, have used her home as a base camp.
Sirlin said he’d like to go beyond bringing in athletes for training and bring them in for World Cup-caliber competitions. The U.S. has only hosted one BMX freestyle World Cup stop, and that was in 2016. The course is expected to host the national championships next spring.
Considering her propensity for being on the cutting edge of the sport, Sirlin knows he may have been wise to get Roberts involved.
“She has accomplished more by a female in BMX freestyle than anyone in the history of the sport … and she’s only 23 years old,” he said. “I think she pushed the envelope of a very male-dominated sport that now is seeing 100% progression by countries all over the world and women all over the world, and she was the benchmark. That’s what I think Hannah has done for the sport.”
She says she’s nowhere near done, either. Next up is X Games Salt Lake City. Then, according to her long-term plan, every Summer Olympics through 2036. She expects to be based out of Utah for all of it, she said.
She just has to get that first title — to a house with a yard for her dogs — and let fate take it from there.
Sports
NRLW: Jacinta Carter on embracing the Cronulla lifestyle
After winning the premiership with Newcastle in her first season of NRLW, Jacinta Carter has now moved to Cronulla in search of opportunities and she’s loving life in the Shire. Chatting to Declan Byrne on ‘The Saturday Sledge’, Carter talks about how she’s embraced her new home, who sat her down to tell her what […]

After winning the premiership with Newcastle in her first season of NRLW, Jacinta Carter has now moved to Cronulla in search of opportunities and she’s loving life in the Shire. Chatting to Declan Byrne on ‘The Saturday Sledge’, Carter talks about how she’s embraced her new home, who sat her down to tell her what it means to be a Shark and her level of QLD Origin fandom as kid.
Sports
Tarleton State’s Prestina Ochonogor wins gold, sets new U-20 African Record at African U20 Championships
Story Links STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Tarleton State freshman Prestina Ochonogor shined once again on the international stage taking home gold and setting a new African U20 record at the 2025 African U20 Championships in Abeokuta, Nigeria on Saturday. Ochonogor dominated with all three of her jumps exceeding 6.60 meters. She set […]

STEPHENVILLE, Texas – Tarleton State freshman Prestina Ochonogor shined once again on the international stage taking home gold and setting a new African U20 record at the 2025 African U20 Championships in Abeokuta, Nigeria on Saturday.
Ochonogor dominated with all three of her jumps exceeding 6.60 meters. She set a new season best and posted her third-best lifetime leap with a 6.71-meter jump. That leap established herself with the U20 African record and U20 African championships record as well.
The youngster breaks the U20 record previously held by fellow Nigerian Olympian, Ese Brume. Brume’s best leap of 6.61 meters came when she was 19 years and 162 days old. Ochonogor recently celebrated her 19th birthday, setting the new record at 19 years and 16 days old. Brume also held the meet record of 6.33 meters set over 10 years ago when the competition was in Addis Abada, Ethiopia.
The Bennin, Nigeria, native, has been setting constant records since joining the Tarleton State squad. In her first jump as a Texan, she set the new women’s indoor long jump school record and WAC Championships Meet record with a 6.49-meter jump. She bested herself later on in the competition re-breaking those records and setting a new all-time WAC record with a 6.64-meter leap. But she wasn’t done there. In the outdoor slate, she set the new school record at the Texas Relays. At the WAC Outdoor Championships, she tied the meet record with a 6.67-meter leap.
Ochonogor is no stranger to competing for Nigeria at the national level. A summer ago, Ochonogor jumped for Nigeria at the 2024 Paris Olympics. As one of the youngest competitors at the 2024 Paris Games and one of the youngest to compete for Nigeria, the then 17-year-old finished 12th in the women’s long jump.
In her first season as a collegiate athlete, the freshman brought home major accolades. She won the WAC long jump title in both the indoor and outdoor season and was a First Team All-American with an eighth-place finish at each NCAA National Championship. She also earned the WAC Outdoor Female Freshman of the Year, the second Texan this year to win the honor, joining indoor freshman Victoria Cameron.
At the end of the month, Ochonogor will compete at the Nigerian National Championships in the long jump. The freshman will be competing for a chance to earn a bid to the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan in September.
Sports
Canada falls to Serbia in men’s Volleyball Nations League
LJUBLJANA — The Canadian men’s volleyball team fell 3-1 to a Serbian team desperate to avoid relegation in Volleyball Nations League on Saturday. LJUBLJANA — The Canadian men’s volleyball team fell 3-1 to a Serbian team desperate to avoid relegation in Volleyball Nations League on Saturday. Serbia’s (15-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-22) victory over the Canadians […]

LJUBLJANA — The Canadian men’s volleyball team fell 3-1 to a Serbian team desperate to avoid relegation in Volleyball Nations League on Saturday.
LJUBLJANA — The Canadian men’s volleyball team fell 3-1 to a Serbian team desperate to avoid relegation in Volleyball Nations League on Saturday.
Serbia’s (15-25, 25-22, 25-18, 25-22) victory over the Canadians assured the Serbians a berth in next year’s Nations League with a ranking of 15th out of 18 participating countries.
Canada, ranked 14th with a record of 4-7, will also return to Nations League in 2026. The Canadians wrap the VNL preliminary round Sunday against Ukraine.
Canada dominated the Serbians in the first set, but the latter adjusted to pull out the victory.
Serbia led in attack points (53-50), aces (4-3) and made fewer errors (26-29). Canada had the more effective block (8-4).
“We have to execute at a higher level if we want to be able to compete internationally,” observed Canadian head coach Dan Lewis.
“The statistics in general were not that bad, plus minus was good overall, but we didn’t have enough serving pressure on them and our attack dropped to a level that’s not sufficient enough to compete at a high level.
“We’re not digging enough balls and we’re not presenting ourselves with enough block positive and slow down transition opportunities and this has been a theme for some of our matches. We need to improve on this if we’re going to win.”
Brodie Hofer of Langley, B.C., (15 points), Isaac Heslinga of Orangeville, Ont., (14 points), and Toronto’s Xander Wassenaar Ketrzynski (11) led scoring for Canada.
Serbia’s Drazen Luburić led all scorers with 20 points (18 kills and 2 aces)
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2025.
The Canadian Press
Sports
Heartbreak for Stingers as Greece net late winner
Australian captain Bronte Halligan (right) battles it out with Greek player Sofia Tornarou. (EPA PHOTO) Australia’s women’s water polo team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the dying seconds of their quarter-final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore. The Aussie Stingers and Greece were locked at 7-7 with eight seconds left on Saturday, but Australia […]


Australia’s women’s water polo team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the dying seconds of their quarter-final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
The Aussie Stingers and Greece were locked at 7-7 with eight seconds left on Saturday, but Australia inexplicably turned over the ball and the Greeks swam towards the Aussie goal, shooting from outside to beat the buzzer, scoring with two seconds left.
There were never more than two goals separating the teams all game, and the Aussies seemed to have the momentum in the final quarter.
It was always going to be an emotion-charged game, the two sides having faced off in the quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics. Australia won that game and went on to claim the silver medal. But, like Australia, the Greeks have a new-look team and have already achieved strong results in this Olympic cycle.
Stingers captain and dual Olympian Bronte Halligan said the team were devastated they won’t have the opportunity to play for a world championship medal.
“That’s a really tough result. As Bec (Rippon, Stingers coach) said, quarter-final water polo you’ve got to stick it out right to the end and we did,” Halligan said.
“The Greeks also did that, but we showed real heart out there and I couldn’t be more proud of our girls.
“It’s a tough loss and it’s going to sting for a little bit, but the girls will hold their heads high knowing we did everything we could have.
“This is a stepping stone and we really want to build this squad, we have a lot more goals. I think it’s exciting to see where we are going to go over the next few years during this Olympic cycle.”
Rippon echoed Halligan’s sentiment, saying despite the disappointment of the loss there is a lot they can build on as they set their sights on LA 2028.
“We spoke about it before the game, that this is what we do all the hard work for, these big moments, and we go out there and leave everything we’ve got in the pool, and I think we did that tonight,” Rippon said.
“It is a heartbreaking way to lose, but we did leave everything out there and I’m proud of the team.”
Australia now meet Japan in the classification matches on Monday.
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Sports
Former Cardinal Golfer Emily Holzopfel Takes Third in WV Women's Amateur Championship
Story Links Wheeling, W. Va. – Last week, some of the best amateur golfers across the state of West Virginia competed at the Club at Cress Creek for the 2025 West Virginia Women’s Amateur Championship. Former Cardinal Emily Holzopfel was among the events participants and finished third in the competition field with a score of […]

Wheeling, W. Va. – Last week, some of the best amateur golfers across the state of West Virginia competed at the Club at Cress Creek for the 2025 West Virginia Women’s Amateur Championship. Former Cardinal Emily Holzopfel was among the events participants and finished third in the competition field with a score of 224 (+8) across the three rounds of competition. The former Mountain East Conference (MEC) Women’s Golfer of the Year finished just seven strokes behind the event’s champion as she continues her post college playing career.
The event kicked off on Sunday, July 13th, with the first 18 holes of competition and it would be the best round of the event for Holzopfel. She would shoot a 71 across the 18 holes, shooting an even par for the day. After hitting par on hole one, she picked up the first of four birdies on the day to get to –1. She would add two more birdies on the front nine and finished an even par after nine holes. She duplicated her performance on the back nine and would sit in the top spot after the first round. Holzopfel would hold a two stroke lead on the competition field heading into day two of action and looked to continue her success on the course.
As she entered day two of the event, Holzopfel would continue to battle for the top spot, shooting a 74 (+3) in round two. She would add two more birdies to her event total and had her best showing on the front nine, where she shot a +1. With 18 more holes to come on the final day, Holzopfel would hold a one stroke lead over Morgantown’s Alyssa Zhang as she looked to finish the event strong. Her final round would see her shoot 79 (+8), putting up a +4 on both the front and the back nine. She would end up finishing third in the competition field finishing at +11 over the three days of competition. It equalled her third place finish from a year ago competing against the best of the best in the women’s amateur scene.
During her four seasons in a Cardinal uniform, Holzopfel was one of the most decorated golfers in Wheeling Women’s Golf history. She finished as a two-time First Team All-MEC award winner, taking home the conference’s Women’s Golfer of the Year award during the 2021 season. In that same season, she led the Cardinals to their first-ever team appearance at the NCAA DII Atlantic Regional Championships. She also played as a member of the Wheeling University Women’s Basketball team, where she helped lead the Cardinals to the MEC Women’s Basketball tournament in each of her four seasons. She would cap her athletic career by winning the Female Intercollegiate Athlete of the Year award, given annually to the top graduating female student-athlete for their achievements across their entire athletic career.
The Wheeling University Women’s Golf team will kick-off the 2025 Fall season on Thursday, September 4th, when they host day one of the Wheeling Invitational at 9 AM.
Sports
Eastman key to Manitoba’s Francophone Games team – The Carillon
After nearly a decade on hiatus, the Canada Francophone Games are back. The games opening ceremonies were held in Montreal’s Bell Centre, the home of the NHL’s Canadiens July 15, with the Manitoba delegation full of Eastman talent. The Francophone Games bring French-speaking youth from across the country together to compete in a variety of […]

After nearly a decade on hiatus, the Canada Francophone Games are back.
The games opening ceremonies were held in Montreal’s Bell Centre, the home of the NHL’s Canadiens July 15, with the Manitoba delegation full of Eastman talent. The Francophone Games bring French-speaking youth from across the country together to compete in a variety of disciplines.
The Francophone Games were last held in 2017, with the 2020 edition of the games cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
One of the over 100-member delegation from Team Manitoba is Otterburne’s Mélanie Curé, who is the coach of the province’s badminton team. The Francophone games feature both sports and culture competitions, including culinary, music and improv teams.
“It’s really good to see them back,” Curé said.
“It will come with a bit of a learning curve for a lot of folks. Typically when you have this sort of thing every two or three years, there’s continuity… When you go eight years without it, you’ve essentially lost two high school cycles.”
Sporting events include beach volleyball, badminton, athletics, ultimate, flag football and 3×3 basketball.
Eastman participants fill the Team Manitoba roster, with more than two dozen set to suit up for Team Manitoba across various events. Gabrielle-Roy volleyball standouts Colin Vermette and Logan Barnabé, who helped their AA school to an appearance in the AAAA semi-finals last season, will represent the province in beach volleyball.
Cure’s badminton team features a pair of Eastman players from St Adolphe and Aubigny. It’s going to be an intense schedule for badminton athletes. After individual events, the provinces will be seeded for a team competition, similar to the Davis Cup in Tennis.
“It makes for a very different feel,” Curé said, noting the players and coaches feel the pressure to perform for teammates.
“There’s a lot of emotional management happening as well. All of a sudden you’re not just playing for everybody on the bench with you. The fans are always a lot louder, you’ve got cowbells and signs. That’s not something that badminton players are used to seeing… It makes for a very different experience… Getting to do it in French is something that doesn’t happen very often.”
Some of the best badminton players in the U19 age group in Manitoba are Francophone, with more than 40 players trying out for the team earlier this year. Curé said it’s difficult to predict how badminton players will fare at the games, as even during normal games it was up in the air how good the top players from other provinces would be.
“I’m very happy with the turnout, we had a record number of players try out, which made my job very difficult but also very rewarding” she said.
“In terms of how they’ll stack up against other provinces, I truly have no clue.”
There are plenty of new faces on Team Manitoba’s mission staff, with many former athletes and participants now making the transition to organizers and coaches.
While the pressure to perform in their respective disciplines is strong, Team Manitoba is also the three-time defending Francophonie award winner, where athletes from other provinces vote for which region had the best spirit throughout the games.
“It’s something that’s definitely been discussed,” Curé said with a laugh.
“We’re really hoping to bring that vibe again.”
A new feature for the games this year has an Eastman connection as well, as the Francophone Games will give out the first Roxane Dupuis Commitment Award.
The award recognizes “the ongoing commitment of a person who has distinguished themselves by their contribution to the development of the games over the years,” and is named after La Broquerie’s Roxane Dupuis, who will be in Laval to present the award herself.
The 2028 edition of the games will be closer to home, as Regina was announced as the next hosts earlier this year.
Participants
Raphael Raharijaona – Grunthal – Ethics Cup
Nathalie Delaquis – Ile des Chenes – Music
Julie Fillion – Kleefeld – Music
Cédric Chartier – La Broquerie – Athletics
Yvan Turenne – La Broquerie – Basketball
Benjamin Niyomugabo – La Broquerie – Improv
Cédric Gendron – Lorette – Media
Mia Dupasquier – Lorette – Culinary Arts
Rosalie Dion – Lorette – Athletics
Calia Perreault – Marchand – Music
Élyza Jolicoeur-Funk – Richer – Survival Camp
Sarah Dupuis – St Adolphe – Badminton
Mia Hambleton – St Adolphe – Basketball
Colin Vermette – Ste-Agathe – Beach Volleyball
Logan Barnabé – Ste-Agathe – Beach Volleyball
Alek Ouimet – Ste-Agathe – Beach Volleyball
Tristan Cousineau – Ste-Agathe – Badminton
Leah Berard – Ste-Anne – Athletics
Alyana Beaumont – Ste-Anne – Social Justice
Coaches/Leadership
Nicholas Stevenson – Grande Pointe – Athletics
Alexis Bartlett – Niverville – Athletics
Mélanie Curé – Otterburne – Badminton
Zoé Savoie – St Adolphe – General
Alexandre Normandeau – Ste-Anne – Media
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