Tokyo Olympics: Worthington will take centre stage in Tokyo looking to continue Team GB’s success

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. Only this former chef did that and then stepped into the cauldron of an Olympics instead.

Charlotte Worthington is the BMX freestyle star who will take centre stage in Tokyo this weekend, looking to continue Team GB’s surprise success at the Ariake Urban Sports Park.

And it is all a far cry from when the Games were last staged five years ago and Worthington was working 40 hours a week at a Mexican restaurant. 

‘It’s been a crazy process,’ the 25-year-old told Sportsmail. ‘When I look at my life five years ago, it was completely different.

‘I was cooking beef brisket, pulled pork, loads of tacos. I worked at a bunch of different restaurants. I did that until I was 21.

‘BMX was just a hobby at the time and it was at that point in life where a lot of people say, “You’ve got to grow up one day and work for a living”. I was thinking, “Jeez, this is just a hobby that’s eventually going to fade out and I’m going to work in kitchens for the rest of my life”.

‘But when BMX freestyle got added to the Olympics in 2017, I was told about an opportunity with British Cycling and as soon as I got that secured, the first thing I did was quit my job.’

Worthington has only been riding BMX bikes for five years, and she comes into the Games having won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Montpellier just last month.

BMX racing has been in the Olympics since 2008 but this new freestyle park discipline is more akin to skateboarding, where riders have to display their best flips and tricks.

‘I’d like to see myself as someone who can definitely go for gold,’ adds Worthington.