Kelley Primc raced across the finish line to win the world championship as a female Bicycle Motocross rider.
Primc, an ASU human communications senior, has won her National Age Group, or NAG, championship seven times, has a “Got Milk?” advertisement, starred in a commercial, was cast in a TV show and won a world championship in 2002.
Primc, born and raised in Happy Valley, has been racing BMX since she was 12 and has yet to lose a state championship in Arizona.
“I was happy when Kelley first began racing,” said Katie Hall Primc, Kelley’s mother. “She always came and watched her brother race and now she could do it too.”
Paramount Pictures approached Primc in 2002 and asked her to star in its new campaign to encourage children to be athletic. Primc appeared in five commercials to help promote athleticism for the campaign, “Ready, Set, Go!” From there, her career took off.
The next year, Primc was asked to be in a “Got Milk?” advertisement. She was flown to New York City and her ad appeared in Seventeen Magazine, as well as on a few billboards.
At 17 she was cast in the reality TV show “Boys vs. Girls: Puerto Rico” on Noggin the N, where she spent several months in Puerto Rico filming the show.
After filming she returned home and finished her senior year at Sandra Day O’Conner High School in Phoenix and continued to race BMX.
Kelley’s mother drove her all over the United States to compete in races.
“When she was under 18 I had to sign permission slips,” she said. “Now she is pretty much doing things on her own.”
Despite Primc’s success, female BMX riders do not receive nearly as much attention as male riders, she said.
“Women’s BMX racing has come a long way considering women didn’t have their own class system, and now this is the second time they will appear in the Olympics,” she said.
Several male BMX riders believe that the women have greatly improved their skill, according to Steven Berta, a professional BMX racer.
“It’s just a matter of time until the girls are hitting the men’s sections at (Union Cycliste Internationale) races and competing on the same level as men,” Berta said. “I don’t see why there would ever be anyway for them to slow down. The sport will progress, get faster and get better. It will just evolve over time.”
Today, Primc travels monthly to race and says she will be traveling a lot more during the summer. After graduating from ASU in May, Primc said she plans to focus more of her time and energy on BMX.
“Once I graduate I plan to continue to race BMX and hopefully move to California, be able to travel more and increase my ranking,” she said.
Contact the reporter at hdvorak@asu.edu
