Adam Carey will lead Thailand's national BMX team to Tokyo.

"Most kids dream of participating in the Olympics, for me, I wanted to coach an Olympic rider," he said.

Carey recently returned home to where his career started at the Border BMX Club and he also brought his Thai side.

In fact, his first job was coaching at the club - at 15.

"The club needed a coach and I said I would do it," he said.

"I was teaching BMX riding and safety at schools."

After finishing school himself in Wangaratta, Carey completed a degree in exercise sports science.

And such is his love for the sport he's completing a PhD - looking at his chosen discipline, BMX Supercross.

"I've loved BMX since I was nine years old," he said of his passion.

"Once I watched the 2008 Olympics as a 19-year-old, I really wanted to go there as a coach."

For a long time though, Carey also had ambitions to ride on the world's biggest sporting stage.

He represented Australia at the 2009 World Championships in Adelaide and was ranked in the world's top 24 at one time.

But an Achilles injury ahead of Rio 2016 torpedoed his Olympic riding dream.

"A really bad injury kind of warps your soul a little bit," he said.

"You turn around and say, 'why did this happen to me'?

"I had three months on the couch where I wasn't able to move too much. That's tough, it's tough for you, it's tough for the people who support you."

A specialist said he would never ride again. He got the OK to ride again just seven months later.

"It questions how bad you really love something so, for me, it was always to get back on the bike, not necessarily to be as competitive as I was," he said.

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Carey had overcome an obstacle around 20 years earlier when diagnosed with diabetes.

"It's had a huge impact, I've gone to events being the fastest competitor there and you have a bad blood sugar level throughout the day and it costs you," he said.

"Things like management of your body weight and managing food are areas that diabetes significantly effects.

"It makes life a lot harder, but once you get a manage on it, it's not an excuse you can rely on forever."

And Carey isn't into excuses.

He's currently at the Southeast Asian Games and was even scheduled to meet the King of Thailand.

"The King is a really keen enthusiast of cycling in all forms," Carey said.

"We recently had a trial event in Tokyo and it was just a surreal feeling because it's taken 12 really hard years to get there."