BMX star Sam Willoughby says he is not superstitious but there’s a pattern emerging involving him and world championships which he hopes to continue in Colombia this week.

Willoughby, from Adelaide, became BMX world champion in 2012 and 2014 which points to one thing in Medellin this week — a third rainbow jersey.

“I was thinking about that the other day, I try not to be superstitious but I’ll go with that,” he said of winning a world title every two years.

“When I go back and watch the video (of 2012 worlds) I feel like performance wise it seems a lifetime ago because the sport has changed.

“But when I think about the moment, I still definitely remember the feeling of winning and I was lucky enough to do it again in 2014 and that’s probably the best feeling I’ve had in the sport.”

Like 2012, this year is somewhat different for Willoughby who has dual objectives with the upcoming Rio Olympics.

The rider ranked No. 4 in the world, is yet to officially book his spot for Rio but that can be sealed with a strong performance at this week’s world titles.

“Pretty much my whole year has been based around being right at this time and then after this I’ll look to re-set and go again for the next 10 weeks (to Rio),” he said.

“It would be nice if in January they could say ‘you’re going to the Olympics 100 per cent get ready for it’ and I would spend eight months to knuckle down.

“But you’ve still got to tick the boxes as you go and perform just to first of all get on the team and even for your own confidence.

“So what I did the last cycle (2012) and this year is breaking it up into almost two seasons, I got a good pre-season in over Christmas and this in my eyes is the end of the first season.

“So I’m 100 per cent eyes towards world championships at the moment and after there we’ll kind of re-plan and do a shorter 12-week season.”

It’s obvious that whoever wins the world title this week will have a target on their back in Rio but Willoughby said he embraced that prospect, like he did in 2012 when he won a silver medal at the London Olympics as reigning world champion.

“I don’t feel that had anything to do with the pressure I felt at the Olympics,” he said.

“It was more feeling the prestige of the event itself and that’s something I’ve done once now.”

The 24-year-old will ride the time trial on Saturday and race on Sunday where he will be joined by Australia’s other leading riders Anthony Dean and Bodi Turner in the elite men’s field.

The women’s field is headlined by 2013 world champion Caroline Buchanan and Lauren Reynolds.

Australia can send three men and two women to race BMX at the Rio Olympics in August.

Buchanan enters this week’s world championships ranked No. 1 and is relishing the challenge.

“It’s a great place to be in coming into worlds number one ranked, I have been in this position before,” she said.

“This world championships will be the same as any other and every race for me these past four years have been stepping stones and opportunities to grow, learn, challenge and step up.”

reece.homfray@news.com.au