Aussie BMX racing medal shot's wrist is so busted he can't crack salt and pepper

PARIS: Izaac Kennedy can't crack salt and pepper on his dinner — he hasn't been able to since smashing his left wrist into 10 pieces — but he can go flat out over bumps and jumps on his BMX.

Three months after flying off his bike and doing serious damage in a practice run in South Carolina, the Australian BMX racer has his sights set on winning a medal on his Olympic debut.

About a year before obliterating his wrist, he'd suffered an even worse injury blow during a race in Nevada, where he got tangled on the first jump and stuck out his left leg to brace himself. A scan of his left knee revealed a ruptured PCL, torn ACL and torn MCL. A scan of his left ankle revealed ruptured deltoid ligaments and a fractured talus.

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Kennedy feared after that crash that his Paris campaign was over.

He even feared his career was over.

And although his wrist is still broken, that won't hold him back when the starting gate flings open in the opening rounds on Friday morning (AEST).

"It was a tough first few weeks [after last year's crash]. Obviously our legs are what we pedal with and use to go fast, so I thought Paris and my career might be over," Kennedy, a 23-year-old from the Gold Coast, tells Wide World of Sports.

"I was always going to put in the effort to get back, but you never know when you're going through an injury like that ... I was definitely having those thoughts and it was pretty scary thinking your career might be over, or you're never going to win a race again or be able to compete.

"I didn't want to get out of bed and I didn't want to go and do anything. You're just sitting there in your thoughts and it feels like everything is over and all that work is down the drain. I was waking up every day just over it."

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He has gory immediate memories of last year's crash.

"It was pretty gnarly pain in my ankle," he recalls.

"I was expecting to look down and see it twisting backwards or a bone poking out of my skin ... It felt like my ankle had been cut off."

Gutted, but determined to not quit, he changed his phone background to a picture of the Olympic rings.

"After a few weeks of feeling like crap you don't want to feel like that anymore, so I decided I was going to set a goal and not give up on the goal that I had," he says.

"I still had the same goal of going to win a medal [at the Olympics in Paris].

"I was doing my rehab every single day, doing everything I could, building blocks and getting better and better and better each day, to the point where I could get back on the bike."

Just seven months after suffering major knee and ankle injuries, Kennedy won round three of the 2024 World Cup series, racing to victory in Brisbane.

In April, he and fellow Australian Saya Sakakibara were crowned the men's and women's BMX Racing World Cup champions.

But in May, just one day before the start of the BMX racing world championships, he broke two bones in his wrist, including the scaphoid, which exploded into 10 pieces.

His bike malfunctioned on a jump and he went flying several metres, hitting the tarmac with a thud.

A plate, pins and screws were used to repair his wrist.

"The surgeon said it was like putting little sand pieces back together," Kennedy says.

He should have been beginning his pursuit of a world title on day one of the world championships. Instead, he was flying to Colorado to go under the knife.

"I remember being on the phone to my dad [after the wrist surgery] crying and saying, 'It's all over and I'm not going to the Olympics'," he recalls.

But for the second time in less than a year, he won a battle with his mind.

"I was like, 'All right, I can still do this'," Kennedy says.

"It made me more motivated, to be honest. The whole situation pissed me off and I was like, 'All right, watch this'. That was my mindset.

"I can't really even crack salt and pepper on my food, but I can somehow ride my bike at 100 per cent. It's still painful, but it's not limiting me.

"Once I hopefully come home from the Olympics with a medal it's going to make it taste even sweeter."