Matt Freed, Post-Gazette
South Hills resident Sinead Miller, 15, is an up-and-coming BMX rider.
Click photo for larger image.

It's hard to believe Sinead Miller is 15.

Tall with blonde hair, blue eyes and the matter-of-fact demeanor of someone older, she knows exactly the path she wants her life to take over the next several years.

"I want to win the Olympics. I want to try for Beijing [in 2008]. I'll be out of high school then," she said last week after competing in a bicycle race in Highland Park.

It's not an outrageous aspiration.

Miller, a sophomore at South Park High School, is accomplished on a national level in bicycle racing, at both BMX and road racing.

At the USA Cycling national championships at Park City, Utah, in June, at the bottom of the women's 15-16 age bracket, she won the silver medal in the criterium, the bronze in the time trial and was fourth in the road race.

Earlier in June, Miller won her age group at the Wachovia Cycling Series time trial in Philadelphia. In late July, competing against all ages, she won the women's Category 3 criterium and was fifth overall at the Tour de 'Toona after winning the overall Category 4 title there last year.

"I want to go pro right out of high school," Miller said. "I want to get on a big team, like Team Mobile, and travel around the United States racing."

Her father, Rex, a salesman with a flexible schedule, sees that happening.

"She's an honor roll student and her mom [Lisa] wants her to go to college, but we've been training her since she was 5 to be a pro, and I think after high school we're probably going to go on the road with her, whether it's BMX or road or maybe both," he said. "We're just going to bounce around and chase the money."

Rex Miller is a former Superbike motorcycle racer.

"She grew up in that whole environment of racing," he said. "We know how to be on the road all the time, kind of like gypsies. We know how to acquire sponsorships."

Miller is in her first year on a locally sponsored road-racing team, UPMC Cycling Performance. She participated often in the Allegheny Cycling Club's weekly summer races, competing primarily with adult men in the B races, usually finishing in the top 10.

"Physically, it's hard to keep up," Miller said, but she feels stronger in women's races after competing with the men.

"I was hesitant to put her in these classes because I was worried about her being competitive," Rex Miller said. "But she definitely earned her way in here."

Miller started at age 5 in BMX. She finished second among 15-year-old girls in the BMX nationals this past weekend in Louisville after finishing second among 15-year-old girls at a world meet in July in Ontario, Calif.

Although BMX is being added to the Olympic lineup, Miller sees her future in road-racing. She prefers it "because it's faster," and she thinks she'll do better in it. She said her skill as a sprinter, developed in BMX, makes her a strong road-racer.

Her racing season will wind down after the Sugar Run road races Sept. 16-18 in Washington County. Then, she'll catch up with the South Park cross-country team.

"All the coaches want me to be on their team for the endurance sports," she said.

For Miller, though, there is only one sport closest to her heart, one with two wheels.

First Published: September 6, 2005, 4:00 a.m.