Arielle Martin is flying high and catching air in a sport that few women — and even fewer Mormons — try.The 23-year-old BYU graduate from Pleasant Grove, Utah, is the current Union Cycliste Internationale World Cup SX champion, with her sights set on getting gold at the 2012 Olympics in London.__IMAGE1__She was in the running for the 2008 Olympics as one of the world's top 10 riders when she crashed in the quarterfinals and destroyed her knee. She ended up helping her rival, Jill Kintner, train for the lone American women's spot.Martin, a Lone Peak High graduate, grew up watching her dad, Travis Martin — owner of Mad Dog Cycles in Provo, Utah — race BMX bikes when she was just a toddler.She raced other children on her Big Wheel at 4 and started racing a bike on dirt tracks at age 5. By age 9, she was hitting jumps, and at 11, she took her first national ranking. At 15, she turned pro and started collecting sponsors.In October 2007, she became the third woman in the world to do a back flip on a BMX bike.She's gutsy, evidenced by the number of injuries she's suffered: a broken back, lacerated liver, fractured heels (in a rock-climbing accident), a broken hand and damaged knee.She also highly competitive and fearless."The injuries are just part of the deal," Martin said. "It's kind of scary. There's a lot of risk-taking involved, but you can't get to where I am without taking risks."Martin is working on her speed and her tricks in the Olympic training center in Chula Vista, Calif.She took a bronze medal in the World Championships in Adelaide, Australia, and again in the World Cup event in San Diego wearing a custom-made splint on the hand she broke in the first five minutes of practice for a South African World Cup.She is next headed to the final World Cup event in France. (To follow her progress, see her Web site.)Her Mormonism doesn't slow her down much, although she doesn't know any other Mormons in her sport.She relies on her core values to guide her decisions.In fact she makes certain she always says a prayer before she competes in an event."It used to be I'd pray to win. Now it's more a prayer for safety," she said.She and her husband have been married for three years and are ward missionaries in their Washington LDS ward. They hope to start a family after the 2012 Olympics.Her husband, Michael Verhaaren, is deployed in Afghanistan as an Army Black Hawk helicopter crew chief.She once dyed her blond hair black and jazzed it up with a bright pink streak ("Part of my style is looking rad," she said) but she doesn't drink or talk trash and is described by teammates as "down-to-earth, generous and likable."Her spiritual connection helps her be in tune with her body and mind, she said. "My parents raised me with high moral standards. They taught me it doesn't matter what place I finish, but what kind of person I am when I cross the finish line."I think it's amazing (to be a Mormon in this sport)," she said. "I get an opportunity to share the gospel."
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