Arielle Martin

Date of Birth: July 30, 1985
Height: 5'5"/1.6m
Weight: 145 lbs./66 kg./10.4 st.
Place of Birth: Farmington, New Mexico
Hometown: Cedar Hills, Utah
Residence: Spanaway, Washington and Chula Vista, California
Education: Brigham Young University, B.S. Exercise Science
Teams: Intense BMX
Social Media:

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UCI World Championships Results

4th place — 2013 UCI BMX World Championships, Auckland, New Zealand
4th place — 2012 UCI BMX World Championships, Birmingham, U.K.
5th place — 2011 UCI BMX World Championships, Copenhagen, Denmark
8th place — 2010 UCI BMX World Championships, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
3rd place — 2009 UCI BMX World Championships, Adelaide, Australia
6th place — 2006 UCI BMX World Championships, São Paulo, Brazil

Career Highlights

2nd place — 2013 USA Cycling Elite BMX National Championships, Chula Vista, California
5th place — 2012 UCI Supercross World Cup #2, Randaberg, Norway
1st place — 2011 UCI Supercross World Cup #4, Chula Vista, California
1st place — 2010 UCI Supercross World Cup, TT, Chula Vista, California
6th place — 2010 UCI Supercross World Cup Series, overall
1st place — 2008 UCI Supercross World Cup Series, overall
2nd place — 2008 USA Cycling National BMX Championships, DeSoto, Texas
2nd place — 2008 UCI Supercross World Cup, Adelaide, Australia
2nd place — 2008 UCI Supercross World Cup, Frejus, France
3rd place — 2009 UCI Supercross World Cup Series, overall
3rd place — 2009 UCI Supercross World Cup, Chula Vista, California
3rd place — 2009 UCI Supercross World Cup, Frejus, France

Points of Interest

In October 2007, Arielle became the third woman in the world to do a backflip on a BMX bike.

She was the first American woman to win a BMX Supercross World Cup (Chula Vista 2011).

Arielle claims to be an undercover Martha Stewart. She loves cooking and decorating her house, and can be very domestic at times. This often surprises people due to her career choice.

Arielle's husband, Michael Verhaaren, is an active duty Army sergeant and black hawk crew chief stationed at Ft Lewis, Wash.

Key Stats

Max power: 1,300 watts
Max track speed: 37 mph
Max sprint cadence: 220
Biggest jump landed: 42 ft.

Personal

Arielle Martin grew up during BMX's zenith in the 1980's and, thanks to a father who raced and ran a bike shop, she shucked her training wheels at 2 1/2 and started racing at five. She can't remember ever not being on a bike so when it was announced that BMX would be an Olympic event, Arielle was already on track to earn a trip to BMX's Olympic debut. Of course she wasn't the only one with Olympic aspirations and Arielle waged a mighty war against her friend and roommate, Jill Kintner, who trained and bunked with Arielle at the U.S. Olympic training in the months prior to the 2008 Olympics.

Only one point separated the two racers before the BMX World Championships in Taiyuan, China, on June 2, 2008 with the result that only one of the two would claim the only automatic women's spot on the US BMX Olympic Team. An unfortunate crash by Arielle in the quarter-finals took her out of contention and guaranteed Kintner's trip to Beijing, where Kintner won the bronze medal. However Arielle is not done yet and the missed opportunity in 2008 has only strengthened her determination to attend the Games in 2012.

Martin finished a degree in exercise science in 2007 at Brigham Young University. She was married in December 2007 to Michael Verhaaren and has taken his name except for when she is involved in bike competitions.

Arielle breaks up the monotony of BMX training by snowboarding during the winter. She looks forward to snow season all year long because it's her break from BMX but she adds that, if she wasn't racing BMX professionally, she'd probably be doing boardercross, in which case she might look forward to BMX as a break from snowboarding. She grew up in Utah and reminds us that there's a reason why Utah license plates say "Greatest Snow on Earth."

During the summers she and her husband spend a lot of time riding their twin Ducati Monsters since, "There is nothing quite like pinning the throttle through a corner with the sound of the engine roaring in your ears."