My name is Kyla Paton, I’m a fourteen year old girl from Courtice, who plays basketball, wrestles, races Motocross, and by next season I hope to be racing BMX as well. Since I was in grade one I started playing basketball to try and be better then the grade three boys, so they would let me play with them, even though I got a lot better than most of them, they still wouldn’t let me play because I was a girl. That same year I got my first dirt bike and went to lessons as much as I could. I continued riding during lessons and on the trails until about two years ago when I decided that I wanted to start racing Mx. I practiced just getting comfortable on a track for about four or five sessions until I had my first race at OCMC in may of 2023. From there I would practice about three or four times a week then race every Tuesday. I eventually gained enough confidence to race in a more competitive sanction Thames valley riders. I would be racing every weekend and riding at least twice a week for almost a month, till I started to really focus on BMX instead. I bought a 2012 wethepeople and completely rebuilt it. I took it apart, sanded it, re-painted it then put it back together. After that I decided that next year I’m going to start racing at Stouffville BMX, and my final goal is to go to Tulsa for the national races before I turn twenty. Around that time I started playing basketball again with the high school team, and was told If I keep at it it’s very likely I can get a scholarship. When that finished I joined the wrestling team, I am still practicing so hopefully I’ll have my first match in January of 2024.