For the first time since she was 15 years old, Caroline Buchanan is sitting outside the top 50 in the World BMX rankings.

After being cleared to return to full competition after complications with a sternum injury, Caroline has this week started the climb back in a bid to qualify for next year’s Tokyo Olympics.

She is in unfamiliar territory, having been the reigning world champion and the number one ranked rider in the world in the lead up to the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games.

To suggest the past 18-month period has been frustrating for her is a serious understatement, following life-threatening injuries sustained in an off-road crash near Cooma in late 2017.

Since then, Caroline has undergone surgery three times alone on her sternum. She concedes she returned too early after the first surgery.

There were complications with bolts after the second, and it’s been more than eight months since the third surgery. And finally, it would appear she is ready to train and compete without restrictions.

Caroline says it’s been an agonising wait as she witnesses her ranking fall.

“It’s like watching paint dry,” she says.

But the long wait is over. Following a post surgery scan on her sternum, which was cracked in the off-road accident in 2017, Caroline has received the all-clear. – Tim Gavel  23 August 2019 – The Riot Act