DES MOINES, Iowa — Elementary-aged kids enjoy many things, but trying BMX? That might not be every young kid's first choice.
Though for Asher King of Carlisle it is — and has been since he turned 3 years old.
Now 7, Asher presses his parents to get to the local BMX track in Des Moines every day after school.
"He's always asking us if he can come out here," Jamee King, Asher's mother, said. "Even when there's snow on the ground, and we'll tell him like: 'Sorry buddy, it's Iowa weather, we can't do anything about it.'"
With the snow gone for weeks now, the BMX track has been cleared for riding, racing and training.
Other 7 year olds, now friends of Asher's, join him at the track to race.
But for Asher, it's more than that: "I'm probably going to win."
Asher knows a thing or two about winning, and that's because in 2022, he took home first place in the Race of Champions in Lexington, Virginia, earning him a spot in the BMX World Championships in May, where he'll compete against other kids his age.
"His yelling when he was going down the track, it was infectious to see him on the track and having so much fun," said Jerad Cherniss, Asher's coach.
And with last year's Race of Champions under his belt, his family is more than confident in his abilities.
"[Asher] set a goal that he wanted to make the world's team, and we told him: 'It's going to be really tough, you have to go out there and try as hard as you can, and this is your one shot.' We didn't expect him to win five out of the six laps, and punch his ticket to worlds," King said.
Asher was one of three people who brought back a national age group plate from 2022, ranking them nationally in the top-20 for their age group. Now the 14th-ranked 7 year old in the nation, Asher's got a few months to prep for his biggest test yet.
Aside from BMX racing, Asher King also wrestles at a state level, and hopes to continue to do both sports as he grows up.