Amakye Andersen’s bedroom is not quite like that of a typical 13-year-old.
Sure, it’s got the boy’s favorite posters and little toys here and there. But the room is engulfed by oodles of trophies; they are above his bed, stacked up against the wall and piled into his closet.
The teen figures he has about 200 of them. His mom thinks not. “Thousands,” she says.
Andersen may be just 13 years old, but he’s already a 10-year veteran in competitive BMX. The piles of trophies are evidence of his career as a rider.
In fact, he’s just returned from Utah, where he competed in the Great Salt Lake Nationals. In four different categories, he placed third twice as well as fourth and sixth. Earlier this summer, he competed in Medellin, Colombia, where he walked away with more trophies.
“I like to win,” he said.
Andersen began riding when he was just 2 years old. His dad and older brother, Damen, also rode. By the age of 3, he was already competing, and BMX has taken him all around the world, including South Africa, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Arab Emirates. “It’s so much to even remember,” says Tina Andersen, his mother.
Outside of BMX, Andersen said he goes to Gridley Middle School, likes to ride around the neighborhood with his friends and make other people laugh. He’s a good kid at school, his mother said; he does his work and gets good grades. But the boy does spend most of his time competing, practicing, riding for fun or thinking about BMX.
He has no plans to stop, though he eventually wants to study mechanical engineering and build his own BMX bicycles. For now, he’s got a big ambition for his BMX career.
“I want to make it to the Olympics,” he said. At 13, he’s too young to try out. When he’s 16, he can start training for the Olympics and maybe one day qualify, as did his mentor, Corben Sharrah, another local BMX rider who qualified for the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Andersen’s favorite thing about competing in BMX is all the friends he makes around the world, he said. “I like them all.”
He makes about 10 trips a year to competitions. His busy traveling schedule can take a toll on his family, his mother said. It can also get quite expensive.
Sometimes, when she is not able to accompany him on his trips, she said she spends a lot of time being worried that he will crash and get injured. But BMX has made the boy a good kid, she said. It keeps him out of trouble and teaches him to work with other people.
“I’m proud,” Tina Andersen said. “How can you not be?”
On the tracks, the teen is “a helper for sure,” said Teri Meeks, one of the owners at Tucson BMX, one of the venues he practices at.
Andersen is always helping younger kids on the track, she said.
Not only is he a sweet kid, he’s also incredibly talented, she added.
“If he wanted to ride in the Olympics, I could see him making the Olympic team,” she said.
