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Alise Willoughby wins record sixth world championships medal in BMX

Alise Willoughby

USA’s Alise Willoughby competes in the cycling BMX racing women’s quarter-finals run at the Ariake Urban Sports Park during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo on July 29, 2021. (Photo by Lionel BONAVENTURE / AFP) (Photo by LIONEL BONAVENTURE/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Alise Willoughby became the first woman to win six world championships medals in BMX racing, taking bronze in Glasgow, Scotland, on Sunday.

Willoughby, 32, was in second place for most of the final behind Brit Beth Shriever, who won comfortably to add to her Olympic and world titles from 2021.

Dutchwoman Laura Smulders passed Willoughby coming around the last turn for silver.

With bronze, Willoughby broke her tie with Argentine Gabriela Diaz and Sarah Walker, who won all of their medals more than a decade ago, for the most world medals for a woman.

Willoughby is the lone U.S. woman to win two world titles (2017 and 2019) and has the best Olympic finish for an American woman (silver in 2016). In Tokyo, she crashed twice in the semifinals as reigning world champion.

American Felicia Stancil, the 2022 World champion, was eliminated in the semifinals Sunday.

Frenchman Joris Daudet, also 32, holds the overall record of eight medals, including a bronze on Sunday as part of a French medals sweep. Romain Mahieu took gold and Arthur Pilard silver.

No Americans made the eight-man final for a second consecutive year.