After scary injury, Marian cyclist Felicia Stancil rides to BMX world title
Eighteen years after her first age-group world title and six months after a debilitating hip injury, cyclist Felicia Stancil is a BMX world champion.
Soon after crossing the finish line first -- by one-hundredth of a second -- the Marian University graduate covered her face with her hands and sobbed. She had to be assured she had indeed won it Sunday at Nantes, France.
“I’m still taking it all in, but growing up the World Championships meant so much to me,” Stancil said. “I won my second world title at 10 years old in France, so this place is already special to me. At the beginning of the year, I had my worst injury and I’ve only been cleared for three months now, so I am still in shock.
“This is my first elite world title in my career, and it’s incredible. This is the one thing I have always wanted.”
The final featured two Americans: Stancil, who was fourth at last year’s Tokyo Olympics, and Alise Willoughby, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist.
Stancil seized the lead going into the first turn and opened up more than a bike length. Zoe Claessens of Switzerland powered through the rollers on the third straight and nearly overtook Stancil. Merel Smulders of the Netherlands won the bronze medal, as she did in Tokyo. Willoughby was fourth.
Olympic champion Beth Shriever of Great Britain was eliminated in semifinals.
Stancil’s victory came 10 years after the first of back-to-back world junior titles. She dislocated a hip in her first race of the year, crashing into an asphalt berm in January.
“I thought it could have been a tiny fracture. But then when my adrenaline went away, the pain was increasing, and I couldn’t even talk,” Stancil told USA Cycling. “It was that bad. And then I was rushed to the ER.”
Stancil’s hip was put back in place, but she had a micro-fracture in the head of her femur. Doctors told her there was a 20% chance she would need a total hip replacement.
She became the third American woman to win a BMX world title. The others are Michelle Cairns (1997) and Willoughby (2017, 2019).
Stancil, 27, of Lake Villa, Ill., recently relocated from Indianapolis to Florida. She graduated from Marian in 2018 with a degree in exercise science. She won national collegiate titles in 2014, 2015 and 2018.
Contact IndyStar reporter David Woods at david.woods@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: BMX world champion: Marian's Felicia Stancil wins title after injury
