Kittie Weston-Knauer, a.k.a. Miss Kittie, isn’t slowing down anytime soon.
The 69-year-old grandmother from Des Moines, Iowa, is a retired school principal but her BMX racing career is still going strong.
“I’m just enjoying life. I worked hard so that I could retire and play. And that’s what I’m doing: I’m playing,” she told Bicycling Magazine.
Weston-Knauer first began racing nearly 30 years ago after her eldest son became tired of his mother’s armchair coaching.
“If you think this is so easy, why don’t you try it?” he asked her back in 1988.
She took up the challenge and was hooked on the sport.
“That was probably the most thrilling, exciting, invigorating experience I had up to that point,” she told CBS-affiliate station WANE.
Since then, Weston-Knauer has been competing across the U.S. When she first started, she said there wasn’t an appropriate age class for her, so she’d compete against men.
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“And when I started racing, I often beat my husband and some of the other men,” she said. “They wanted me to get my own class!”
Today, she competes in the women’s 56 and over class in the women’s cruiser division.
“One of the things I love about the sport of BMX is the challenges that I face every time I get out on the track,” she explained. “You can look at a track and say to yourself, ‘Woah. That’s easy.’ Until you get to that particular obstacle.”
Weston-Knauer has had her share of obstacles to overcome throughout her racing career.
After a serious crash in the early 1990s, doctors told her she would be paralyzed from her shoulders down and never walk again. She says with treatment and determination, she walked out of the hospital and was back on her bicycle.
More recently, she’s been battling her aging body. She’s had both knees and hips replaced due to osteoarthritis, she told The New York Times. And this summer, she broke her ankle and had to sit out several races as she recovered.
But she’s intent on continuing the sport.
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“Being involved in a sport that requires you to stay healthy really works in your favour, even when there are some challenges that one must overcome,” she said, adding that she works out five days a week for core strengthening and stability.
She describes herself as a lifelong learner and says BMX racing feeds that side of her.
“It’s a boatload of fun but there’s a lot of learning that’s involved,” she said. “I’ve had to continue to race with men sometimes because there aren’t any ladies around to race. So what am I going to do? Pack up my bags and go home because they’re younger? They’re faster? Of course not!”
“I’m not going to watch people having a good time when I could be having a good time with them,” she said.
She hopes that her passion for the sport will help inspire other women to pursue their dreams.
“I tell them that you have to take care of you first. Because when you take care of you first, then everything else falls into place. And it’s not just about BMX racing — it’s about life. So find that one thing you’re passionate about and give it your all,” she said.
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