Tucson's Daleny Vaughn, a Mountain View HS alum, living out Olympic dream on BMX track

Daleny Vaughn had a hard time putting into words just what it meant in the moment she made USA Cycling team as a BMX racer for the upcoming Summer Olympics in Paris.

It’s what Vaughn, a 23-year-old Tucsonan, had been dreaming about and working for most of her life. And as soon as she crossed the finish line at the BMX Racing World Championships in Rock Hill, South Carolina, in May, she knew she was going to Paris.

It had been on her mind all day — even months before — that she had to finish third or better. That’s what was needed for her to make the U.S. Olympic team — compete and represent her country at the end of July.

She did just that, finishing third.

“A lot was riding on (that),” Vaughn said. “I just took the moment to take pressure as a privilege and control my emotions, to go out there and make it happen. It was definitely on my mind, but I just used it to my advantage rather than let it overwhelm me.”

BMX events at the 2024 Summer Games start on Aug. 1.

Even though it was such a big race, Vaughn stayed true to her typical race day routine — something she wouldn’t divulge. But she did share how she celebrated after hugs from her coach and her parents: chocolate chip pancakes at IHOP.

“I really like pancakes, and I try to stay away from them when I am racing, because they’re not the best for you to eat for breakfast,” Vaughn said. “So that was kind of my cheat meal.”

The life of a professional BMX racer does not typically include pancakes. But it does include two-a-days five days a week, with recovery on Wednesdays and Sundays. She’ll do sprints in the morning on her bike then hit the track in the evening.

Vaughn knows that if she doesn’t bring it to every training session, someone else might.

“You really have to wake up every day saying, ‘OK, how can I be better than I was yesterday?’ And that’s a cycle that you have to do every single day to be able to be where I’m at,” she said.

So far in her career, Vaughn has raced not only across the United States, but all over the world. Last year she raced in Bogota, Colombia, in her first UCI World Cup main event. She also won the 2021 Grand National Championship that was in Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis — home stadium of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts and also the site for last month’s U.S. Olympic Swimming Trials — and took the 2021 USA Cycling National Championship title in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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Vaughn isn’t going to Paris just to see the sights or just happy to have made the team. She wants to win.

She admits she doesn’t have a complete plan for her upcoming race in Paris; it’s hard to go into a race like that with a strategy, she said, because “You don’t know what the other seven riders on the gate are going to end up doing, or if you have a bad start, and that’s something that you have to come back with.”

Racers have to adjust as things happen and have the right mindset, which is something Vaughn said worked for her in the World Championships run.

“I knew what I needed to get done,” she said.

Add in something she’s known for — her good starts — and that is a successful package that she said gives her an edge.

Vaughn grew up training locally at Sports Park BMX. Her parents, Julie and Kirk Vaughn, own and operate the track located near Interstate 10 and Ina Road, adjacent to the similarly named softball and sand volleyball facilities on the west side of the I-10.

But Vaughn specifically trained in Paris for a month on the same track that will be used in the Olympics — something she’s grateful for, as racers usually don’t have such an opportunity.

“It’s a lot bigger than most tracks we race on and it’s probably the track with the biggest jumps that we’ve ever raced on before,” Vaughn said.

None of that concerns Vaughn, though; it’s just the opposite. She loves the challenges that come with each race and said she was drawn to the sport for the “adrenaline rush,” she said.

Vaughn, who first jumped on a bike at age three, played team sports like cross country and basketball at Mountain View High School. Beginning to focus only on BMX when she was about 19 has made all the difference, because “it didn’t just consume my life from a young age,” she said.

“I like that everything’s on me; there’s no relying on teammates or anything like that.” Vaughn said. “It’s all on me to go out there and get it done and I have to do it. I have to do in order to win.

“I just like the battle of it all.”