Kerstin Meyer

It sounds like the classic BMX journey shared by so many children and teenagers: Kerstin first became aware of BMX in the film *E.T.* in early 1983, and when half the school was riding BMX bikes around the neighbourhood, she naturally had to have one too. Then came the BMX 2000, and whereas for most others the story would have ended there, for Kerstin it had only just begun.

She attended the Speed Grand Prix final in Berlin-Charlottenburg in October 1984 with her mother and was fascinated by the sport. A classmate then took her to the track, which was only about 15 minutes away, and from then on her visits became a regular occurrence. She met Angelika Stolle, who had discovered BMX for herself around the same time, and found a training partner in her. On 14 April 1985, she rode her very first BMX race in the first round of the Northern Series.

BMX was everything to her. Kerstin loved doing jumps on her bike and can still remember her first wheelie through the Charlottenburg double. It was her fitness and strength that gave her the most trouble at the start. That all sorted itself out thanks to the long distances in Berlin: she was constantly out and about on her bike, doing her first sprint training sessions at the traffic lights to make sure she got home before her mum, or building up her basic endurance on the way to the Ghetto in Tegel or to her boyfriend’s place in Steglitz.

They would travel to BMX races together or with the club, but the distances were considerable, not just within Berlin; even the journey to the nearest track outside Berlin felt like a trip around the world back then. At the end of 1991, she joined the Vegesacker BMX Club and began travelling to races with Wolfgang Fritscher and his Rabbit BMX service van. She competed in her first European Championship in 1991 and then went straight on to her first World Championship. After completing her apprenticeship in 1993, she moved to Bremen and from then on was travelling to races all over the world almost every week. It got to the point where there was hardly any time left for training between races.

Her training and ambitions really took off in 1995 when former national coach Jürgen Gemein (RIP) called her up to the national squad. From then on, there were structured training plans, and Kerstin herself qualified as a coach in 1996. She continued her coaching career for a few more years, but ultimately she felt there was a lack of prospects and realised that some men simply wouldn’t take advice from even the most experienced and successful woman.

Kerstin now lives in Nordheim, near Heilbronn, and continues to race successfully for the Ssquared / Answer Team. Now that the UCI has introduced a 50+ category for women’s cruiser racing, she would like to aim for her eighth world championship title in Australia this year. For the German BMX Hall of Fame, this is almost unprecedented – we don’t have many active BMX riders in our ranks, but we’re happy to make an exception for the G.O.A.T. of German BMX.

• 13-time German champion between 1992 and 2006
• 16-time German champion in the cruiser class between 2001 and 2017
• 4-time European champion
• 7-time World Champion