Former Australian BMX star Sam Willoughby and champion wife Alise celebrate arrival of first child
The Olympic power couple announced the pregnancy in March and earlier this month revealed they would be having a boy.
Beau Matthew Willoughby was born on July 14 after a lengthy labour.
'We couldn't be more in love with our little man,' the new parents wrote, announcing the arrival after a week.
'Longer birthing journey than we anticipated but excited to be home just in time for this Sunday's chequered flag as a family.'
Sam tracked fellow rising BMX star Alise from the other side of the world when they were teenagers, with their Myspace messages progressing to a relationship in the US.
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Sam became world champion for the first time in 2012 and months later won silver at the London Olympics.
He won the 2014 world championship and made another Olympic final at Rio 2016, where Alise won silver for the United States.
Just months later Sam was paralysed from the chest down from a training crash that also left him battling depression and an identity crisis.
Sam underwent more than a year of gruelling recovery sessions before walking Alise down the aisle — with the help of knee braces — at their wedding on New Year's Eve in 2017.
He then re-emerged on the BMX scene as a coach to Alise on her way to winning the 2019 world championship, while she also went on to win the 2024 title.
Sam spoke of moving home to Adelaide after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 but the couple have remained based in California.
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