I first met Khalen Young at the 2007 ABA Winter Nationals. At first I was thinking, "what is wrong with this turd?" His race pants were shorts, he had spandex underneath and the worst clip shoes ever. Aside from his terrible costume, you couldn't deny the fact that he was a character. From his cheeky Aussie accent to his home-made lingo that no one really understood, but still had a laugh about it anyway. I didn't make the final so as I watched from the infield, I was almost a fan of this kids energy and the chance that he might be able to hit the podium in the worst outfit the AA Pro class had seen in a minute. The whole main event crashed that day, other than Khalen and eventual winner, Randy Stumpfhauser. Not often does someone come from overseas and hit the podium their first weekend racing in the Elite Men class.
Shortly after Phoenix, Khalen won the World Cup in Madrid, Spain and that's when we decided to sign him to the Haro US team before he was even permanently living in the states. His first race as part of the team, he went on to have an epic battle for the UCI World title against the late Kyle Bennett where he finished 2nd, a race that will go down in history. In his six seasons riding for us, Khalen finished on countless podiums, won the ABA National #1 Pro Title in 2008, and most recently represented his homeland of Australia at the pinnacle of the sport, the London Olympic Games. Khalen has made his mark in BMX and we are honored to say that he's done it all on a Haro.
At the start of this year, we re-signed Khalen with the thought that this may be his last year racing, as he had been talking of starting the next chapter back in Australia working with his dad in the mining industry. With the season opener less than a month away, we received an e-mail Saturday morning that KY97 was going to close this 24 year chapter of his life, and move on to the next to benefit him and his family.
I'll speak on behalf of all of us here at the Haro offices along with Nic and Brooke in saying, thank you for all the good times, KY!! It's been an epic journey and we wish you nothing but love and success as you move along to the next chapter. -DB44