As the saying goes "good things take time." Bakersfield's Peter Choat hasn't had a lot of it but it's a concept he already seems to get.
Watch him on the BMX track and you'll see he's different. "It must be his vision or something because he knows the right line to take," said Jerry Bradford, his coach who first discovered Choat when he was 6 years old.
That vision helping him stay in every race. "When you're racing you don't really think of anything," said Choat. "It just happens naturally."
Call him a natural then. On tracks from Vegas to Chicago and Atlanta to Tulsa, Choat has won more than a 100 races nationwide including the first time he took the track at age 5.
But with a life on the road, like any parent, so much time away from home can take its toll. "It's very hard but we've been kind of grooming him for this for a long time," said Tiffany Choat.
Choat has been putting in the time for years something that becomes more remarkable when you learn he's just twelve years old!
Living in Bakersfield, commutes to world class tracks in Los Angeles and Lemoore are long but it's his intense workouts that set him apart. "I'm just showing him the path of how to get there and he's excited about doing it," said Bradford.
Choat runs football stairs with Bradford in Monterrey along with plyometrics six days a week. He takes protein shakes after every workout and once he turns 13 will start to lift weights.
That work ethic, paired with his natural ability to be in the right place, has him dreaming for the future. "I want to win a gold medal for my country," he said.
When BMX became an Olympic sport in 2008, Choat's lofty goals suddenly found clarity. Already more than 3,000 people are watching him chase his dream on Instagam.
"The way he treats people...that's why his fan base I think is so big and why he's so popular," said Bradford.
Good things take time and while Peter Choat hasn't had a lot of it through 12 years, he's making the most of his time and looks to be on the right track to seize his moment when it comes.
While he was in Colombia last year for world's, this year it'll be in the states. Ranked fourth in the nation, Choat will look to take the crown later this month in Rock Hill, South Carolina.
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