When Yun Saksena, DMD, was in elementary school back in her hometown of Melbourne, Australia, she asked her parents for a BMX bike.
“Back then, BMX was more like a boys thing,” she said. “And cycling is still very male dominated – a lot of times,10% or maybe 20% of the racers are female.”
Her parents agreed that BMX was a boy’s thing.
“They weren’t into sports. They said, ‘Focus on academics.’”
So – eventually — she went to the University of Melbourne.
Then the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Then Tufts University School of Dental Medicine.
Then UNMC, which she joined in 2018, as an associate dean and associate professor in the College of Dentistry, Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry.
She also cycled, though, competing in velodrome races in Australia, then transitioning to road cycling when she moved to Massachusetts and became part of the Harvard University cycling team.
She is good at academics. But she also is fast.
In October, she competed for Age Group Team USA in the World Triathlon Championships back in her native Australia, racing in the Sprint Triathlon and Triathlon Mixed Relay events at Wollongong. She also volunteered at other events.
The event capped a spectacular year for Dr. Saksena as a triathlete.
When the academic year began in September, Dr. Saksena was fresh off her most recent age-group national championships at the 2025 USA Triathlon Cross National Championships at Hagg Lake, Oregon. (She also competed in the Multisport National Championships in Omaha, finishing seventh in the Sprint Duathlon, and in the Triathlon Mixed Relay when her team finished fourth.)
Dr. Saksena won the female 50-54 age group category on July 12, in a sprint duathlon that included a 23-kilometer mountain bike ride and a 5K trail run. She followed up the next day by taking her age group in the triathlon event, a 750-meter swim, 23 km mountain bike ride and a 5K trail run.
Dr. Saksena also won her age group for the Sprint Triathlon in the USA Triathlon Nebraska State Championship on July 20.
“It was the first time I’d competed in many of the events,” Dr. Saksena said. “Though I’ve always been a cyclist, I’ve raced every USA Cycling discipline and competed in basketball, field hockey, soccer, karate and squash. It’s fun to mix things up and try different things. You’re never too old to try something new.”
Dr. Saksena said: “It was surreal representing the U.S.A. at the world championships, and a privilege to serve as an age group team captain. The best parts were the camaraderie and meeting amazing people from around the world, including Olympians and Paralympians. The courses were challenging, so sprinting to the finish felt awesome.”
She thanked Team USA Director Tim Yount for his support and help, as well as her teammates for their encouragement and help.
“Many times, athletes think about how they could have done better,” she said. “We learn from every race. Sometimes we just need to savour the moment.”
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After completing her studies, Dr. Saksena had stopped competing in cycling races for a time to focus on career and family. But then, when she was in her 40s, one of her children asked to join a developmental cycling team
“And they said, ‘Oh, parents can race, too,’” Dr. Saksena said.
Game on.
“Besides the road racing, I also took up cyclocross, which is like steeple chasing on bikes,” she said. “You jump over things, although the barriers are lower.”
She didn’t have a proper cyclocross bike but rode the hybrid she used for daily commuting.
“Just have fun with whatever you’ve got.”
But it was only after coming to Nebraska in 2018, that Dr. Saksena – finally – started BMX racing.
“A colleague at the college was really into it and invited me to come watch a race. On the day I went to watch, they had loaner bikes there. I borrowed a bike and raced.”
“I did okay, spun the thing along, but it was really squirrely because I didn’t have the right skills or techniques. But it was fun!”
Dr. Saksena kept borrowing bikes and practicing. She won the BMX Nebraska State Championship for her age group that year. She finally has her own BMX bike and won the State Championship on it this year.
The next year, a friend suggested she try a mountain bike race, even though she hadn’t mountain biked before. She bought a vintage mountain bike for winter commuting, raced the next day at Lewis and Clark Monument Trail — and won. At the end of that season, she won the Psycowpath Mountain Bike Series for her age group. She since has won Nebraska state championships in short-track and cross-country mountain biking.
“I loved mountain biking so much that I started coaching kids in a summer program, Lincoln Devo,” she said. “Later, I helped found a mountain bike team for middle schoolers and high schoolers, Lancaster Composite. They won state championships twice, but more important we were building a team where everyone belonged.”
She was the team director for five years, stepping back this year for triathlon.
By 2022, gravel racing was growing in Nebraska. Many of Dr. Saksena’s friends were race promoters/directors. Once again, the lure of a new sport drew Dr. Saksena in.
She raced the Loess Hills Enduro race on her mountain bike, the Grounded Nebraska race 125 mile (and won that race) and closed the season with a Gravel Worlds 150-mile top 10 age-group finish on her road bike.
“I like to try different things,” Dr. Saksena said. “It doesn’t have to be big fields or competitive. For me, it’s more like, “Oh, that sounds interesting.’”
Triathlons were interesting. Dr. Saksena did her first in the 1990s, took a break and started doing them again about 10 years ago, with one every couple of years or so. Dr. Saksena actually had qualified for national championships insprint triathlonwhen she still lived in Massachusetts, but her relocation to Nebraska kept her from going.
In 2018, she tried the Super Sprint distance at the Cornhusker State Games.
“I wanted to try this distance, because I’m more of a sprinter than an endurance person, that’s how I see myself, more fast-twitch muscles. But people say to do triathlons, you really need endurance.
“We were swimming in a lake, and there was algae and seaweed — it wasn’t a pleasant experience.”
But in early May 2024, she discovered the Ethan A. Rhodig Memorial Triathlon — with a 150 m swim, 3.75 mile bike, and an 800 m run – was not only shorter but included an indoor pool.
“And, kind of a flukey thing — I came second in that race, and that qualified me for the national championships.”
Because she wanted to compete in the national championship, and do well, Dr. Saksena began training, traveling to triathlons and mixing in other cycling events.
“I’m not a swimmer,” she said. “But I thought, if I’m going to national championships, representing the state, I’d better get some swimming lessons.” She trained with runners, sometimes driving up to Omaha to run with the Tuesday Night Track Group, and continued bike commuting to work every day and racing bikes, representing Harvest Racing-Trek.
At USA Triathlon Multisport National Championships in 2024, which was held in Omaha, Dr. Saksena finished eighth for her age group in the Super Sprint Triathlon, and did well in her leg of the Triathlon Mixed Relay to qualify for 2025 Age Group Team USA.
“Then I kind of got hooked,” she said. “Last year, when I went to the national championship and qualified for Team USA, I learned about this community. They were so welcoming. There’s all these women that do it, and they’re really supportive. The guys too. So, I had to give back.”
Dr. Saksena volunteered at events and became a USA Triathlon Official. She has officiated at national events, and she was head official for USA Triathlon’s Gravel National Championships in August.
As a dental educator, Dr. Saksena can see many parallels and lessons between endurance sports and dentistry, and she “coaches” her students to develop the skills to visualize long-term goals and the strategies to achieve them.
“To do well in endurance sports requires training, patience and mental toughness,” she said. “Also, technique matters in both dentistry and triathlon. It can take a long time to see improvements, and sometimes you feel like you’re not making any progress. Sometimes you have setbacks, and life happens.
“I tend towards realistic optimism in my teaching and administrative work, and I’ve been called relentless. I know it can be challenging for our dental and dental hygiene students, but I know they have what it takes, so I encourage them and don’t give up on them. You need to see the big picture and the longer-term goals, so I help students reframe things and move forward.”