Let’s hear it for Alise Post, the St. Cloud woman who won a silver medal in the Summer Olympics last Friday.
Post finished second in the women’s BMX (bicycle motocross) race in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The 25-year-old Tech High School graduate competed among the best of the best in the world, with gold medal Olympic defender Mariana Pajon of Columbia beating Post by only 0.342 of a second in the final race. Third, winning a bronze medal, was Stefany Hernandez of Venezuela. Pajon and Post hugged each other after the grueling race in a hilly extreme-sports park in Rio.
Post is a perfect example of a superb athlete who has combined skills, dedication, determination, rigorous discipline, stamina and grueling training to reach the heights of accomplishment. It’s stunning to think an older brother suggested she try bike racing when she was only 6, and that’s how it all started. Before her first race, a steep downhill one, she backed out at the last minute. But not one to be a quitter, she put all of her effort into her second race and took second place. By the age of 15, Post was a true pro, winning race after race. She was the youngest woman, at age 15, to win the No. 1 Pro Women’s BMX title.
She was selected to compete in women’s BMX racing in the Summer Olympics in London in 2012, but a serious bicycle crash caused her to take 12th place. It was a bitter disappointment, but not nearly as terrible as what was to come – the death of her mother, Cheryl, to melanoma in 2014. Post sports her mother’s name on her racing bike as a tribute to her memory and inspiration.
As Post triumphed with a silver medal at the Olympics, her father Mark, family members, relatives, friends and fans watched with great excitement. They were, of course, extremely elated she’d nearly taken the gold by less than a split second.
They were naturally proud of her world-class achievement. And the rest of us, those who have never met her, are proud of her, too. Post has made the United States proud, Minnesota proud, Central Minnesota proud, and proudest of all are those of us who live in the greater St. Cloud area.
Congratulations, Alise Post, from all of us. Way to go!
