Park City teen wins national BMX freestyle title, eyes first World Cup start

Samuel McKenzie, center, stands atop the podium after winning the Amateur 14-18 division at the 2026 USA Cycling BMX Freestyle National Championships at COR Park in South Jordan. Photo: Samuel McKenzie

PARK CITY, Utah — Samuel McKenzie’s latest BMX freestyle title did not come out of nowhere. It came as the next step in a rise TownLift has been following for two years.

The 16-year-old Park City rider won the Amateur 14-18 division at the 2026 USA Cycling BMX Freestyle National Championships at COR Park in South Jordan, scoring a 95.05 in the final round to take gold.

The win adds another layer to a progression that has been building steadily. TownLift reported in 2024 that McKenzie claimed a BMX freestyle national championship in his age group, a breakthrough that followed years of training and pointed toward bigger goals. In 2025, he followed that with a second consecutive national title after moving into the 15-30 amateur division and posting strong finishes across six events.

Now he has added a USA Cycling national title to that résumé.

“It felt really cool and rewarding to win back-to-back-to-back national titles for BMX freestyle in my age group,” McKenzie said.

USA Cycling’s national championship recap listed McKenzie as the top finisher in the Amateur 14-18 category, ahead of Ronan Fazio of California and Austin McFarland of Nebraska.

McKenzie is also moving deeper into the national-team pipeline. According to his family, he was recently selected to the USA Olympic Development team and attended his first training camp in Utah with the national staff.

“Being selected for the USA Olympic Development team is really cool to me because I have the opportunity to be coached by the Team USA coach, Jaime Bestwick, and development team coach Josh Hult,” McKenzie said. “I attended my first team camp last week with Team USA and the development team, and it was cool to train with everyone. I have never had a coach, and I look forward to new levels of progression with this opportunity.”

His next major marker comes this summer. The 2026 UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup calendar lists Birmingham, Alabama, as a stop from Aug. 6-9.

“It feels amazing to be traveling to my first World Cup event this summer at 16 years old,” McKenzie said. “It is so cool to have the event in the USA for the first time in many years. I am really looking forward to the whole experience.”

The arc is clear: from age-group national titles to development-team training to a first shot at the world stage. For McKenzie, what once looked like promise is starting to look like arrival.