11 Boys #1 (FREDERICK Cole) USA at the 2018 UCI BMX World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan.

NEW ULM — He’s just 10 years old, but New Ulm’s Cole Frederick has already accomplished more in his sport than most people who compete for a lifetime in theirs.

And last month he added to that list of accomplishments.

Frederick competed in the 2018 UCI World BMX Challenge in Baku, Azerbaijan from June 4-8 and captured his second BMX world championship. He competed against 66 racers from 19 countries at the world race and he finished first in the 11-year-old boys’ challenge class.

He said that while capturing the title was a great feeling, he had some nerves when competing.

“You can’t look behind you, and it’s nervous because you don’t want to get passed when you’re in front and you don’t want to get passed when you go your hardest,” he said.

Frederick, who races weekly at the River Valley BMX track in New Ulm, has been competing since he was about 6-years old. He races year around and he frequents the Rum River track in Isanti, an indoor track which is open year around.

Because he won a world title last year in Rock Hill, South Carolina, he already qualified for this year’s world race competition in Azerbaijan. And because he already has a world championship under his belt, he had to find a new way to stay motivated. That wasn’t any problem at all for him.

“There’s a lot of competition from the U.S. that may not have traveled over there this year, so his motivation is just competing against other kids from the U.S. that he’s competing against,” his mother, DeAnn Frederick said.

As a 9-year-old last year, he competed against some of the best competition the U.S. and the world has to offer. This year, Cole said that the competition was stronger because he raced against competitors he’s never faced before.

“There’s some new ones [competitors], because they don’t want to travel all the way over to the U.S.,” he said. ”It’s a different track in a different country.”

The 2018 season started in January so he’s been busy traveling to tracks across the country. The wet conditions this year in New Ulm have made it difficult to compete at the local track, which is frustrating for him.

This weekend, Frederick competes in a 3-day national competition in Las Vegas. He leaves Thursday and competition begins on Friday.

“It’s sort of harder, because the gates have different speeds and the track is shorter than other tracks, so it’s a little bit harder,” he said of the national competition in Las Vegas.

Frederick still dreams about competing in the Olympics some day. While that’s a long ways away, he wants to keep that his main goal. He also wants to encourage any younger riders that are thinking about BMX racing to come down to the track, where races are held every Monday. Those interested in racing, regardless of age, are encouraged to give it a try.