A BMX freestyle cyclist from Buchanan is the latest area athlete who’s qualified for Team USA in the Paris Summer Olympics next month.
Hannah Roberts made Team USA after scoring first in a recent BMX Freestyle qualifying event in Budapest, Hungary. It will be Roberts’ second olympics. The 23-year-old won a silver medal in the 2020 Tokyo games, which were played in 2021 because of the pandemic.
Roberts was the first woman to qualify in BMX Freestyle for the 2020 team, the first olympics that included the sport as an event.
Roberts is the third Michiana native representing her country in the Paris games, which start July 24. She joins wrestler Sarah Hildebrandt and volleyball star Annie Drews, both 30-year-old Penn High School graduates.
Like Roberts, Hildebrandt is chasing her first gold medal after winning bronze in Tokyo. Drews, who won two state volleyball titles at Penn before playing at Purdue, looks to add a second gold medal to her trophy case. The women’s volleyball team won it all in Tokyo.
