Gracie “the Viking” Johannsson will compete in the world BMX championships in Brisbane, Australia, later this month. At age 14, the Yucca Valley racer will be making her third appearance at the worlds.

“I just want to do the best I can. I want to leave knowing I’ve done better than I’ve ever done before,” she said. 

“The cool thing would be a title, but it’s not like I need to get it.”

In Brisbane, she’ll be racing riders from other countries and some of her fellow members of Team USA. “I’ll be racing the world,” she said.

She is especially proud of qualifying to race on both bikes — cruiser and 20-inch. She competed on her 20-inch bike at the 2023 Union Cyclists Internationale World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland and the 2024 UCI worlds in North Carolina.

Since then, she’s been plundering tracks across the U.S. After grinding through the intermediate class since 2020, she achieved the 10 wins necessary to advance to expert last year.

Competitors in the intermediate class at Johannsson’s age are mostly boys. Once they hit their teenage years, it got more difficult.

“They’re getting huge, hitting puberty,” she said. “I trained so hard. I was like, ‘I’ve gotta match their muscle strength.’”

She got close racing in South Dakota in 2025. She won two titles in two days. “On the third day I crashed, and that would’ve been my expert race win.”

It was raining, pulling oils out of the asphalt curve. Johannsson hit it fast and slid.

“I was hurt not even physically, but in my heart because that would have been my move up,” she said.

She was hurt physically, too. She still has a scar on her arm. She gestured vaguely to the rest of her body and said, “There were some other ones on my body, but they healed.”

She ended up advancing to expert at the Yucaipa track where she practices and races twice a week. “It was local, which kind of meant something. All my friends and family were there, my grandpa was there, so I feel like it was nice,” she said.

Her 2025 season also included two wins and two third places at national races, and top rankings in the district, Gold Cup Championship Series and state.

With the worlds still ahead, her mom, Sadie Johannsson, thinks 2026 is shaping up to be even better.

“This year, I think, has been her best yet,” Sadie said. “She’s No. 1 in the Southwest region, she’s SoCal 1, District 1. She said something I thought was really neat. She said she’s accomplished almost everything she set out to do in this sport.”

Earning the right to race at worlds for the third time is the icing, but it didn’t come easily. She won her spots at the Team USA world qualifiers in Houston, Texas, in March.

“There are 20 to 30 mph wind gusts you’re riding into at that track,” Sadie said.

Competing in 20-inch and cruiser meant Gracie was in twice the races too — starting with six in a row on the first day.

“Races were back to back to back, so I was pooped by the end of the whole thing,” she said.

“It gets pretty intense,” she said. “There were a couple girls I had to look out for. They’re gnarly, man.”

Going to Brisbane will be the culmination of a dream for Johannsson — and she thinks it will be her swan song.

Johannsson said she’s done almost everything else she wanted to do in the sport she loves.

“Honestly, I really want this to be my last year taking this seriously. It’s a lot,” she said.

“I’m only 14 it’s a lot of pressure. This year is the last I want to do this full throttle.”

Johannsson, who is home schooled, wants to concentrate on other interests, including acting.

“I’ve been doing that longer than I’ve been doing BMX. I’ve been wanting to focus on that more,” she said.

“Next year I want to get a job.”

She also wants to pursue visual art more seriously.

Johannsson has been racing competitively for about half her life. Curious about the Yucca Valley BMX track, she asked her parents to take her there. 

“We would drive last my local track a lot but I didn’t know what it was. I wanted to check it out,” she told the Hi-Desert Star in 2024. “When I saw the bikes, I was like, ‘Mom, I want to do this.’”

Nervous at first, she plucked up the courage to start racing. “That’s when a big part of my life changed.”

“We would drive last my local track a lot but I didn’t know what it was. I wanted to check it out,” she said. “When I saw the bikes, I was like, ‘Mom, I want to do this.’”

It took some time for her to settle into the racing aspect.

“I would get nervous. One day I picked up the courage and went over there. That’s when a big part of my life changed.”

She still gets nervous at the gate, she said, but once the race starts, she’s taken over by the rush of competition.

Her dad, Axel Johannsson, who was born in Iceland, started calling her the Viking and it became her racing nickname.

“She’s made a name for herself. She’s known by that name,” Sadie said. “The announcers at nationals know her now. And they know Yucca Valley. My grandfather would have been so proud.”

That grandfather was Norm Essig, who established Glenn Realty and helped fund road construction and development in Yucca Valley. Elsinore Machris was Sadie’s great-great aunt.

Sadie might be the Viking’s biggest fan. “I’m in awe of what she does,” she said. 

“She’s really humble. She has no ego. That’s one of the things that impresses me most about her,” Sadie added.

“I think that’s actually why she’s made it we far as she’s made it — she doesn’t put herself above everybody. She does the best she can for herself.”

And while Johannsson expects to slow down after Australia, she doesn’t think she’ll ever really leave the track.

“BMX will always be part of my life,” she said.