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S
ome Olympic sports are definitely not for the neutrals.
Watching horses prance about, or people dance under
water, or long-distance biking are hard to follow for
the non-expert. Even contact sports like judo can be
inconclusive and therefore unsatisfying.
BMX is not in the snooze bracket. Here, the riders hurtle along
a track full of tight corners and jumps. There are plenty of
opportunities for crashes and burn outs to keep the neutral
gasping and shouting “Hey, check this out!” to your friends in
the next room.
And while the sport has no kind of classical pedigree –it is hard
to imagine an ancient Athenian barrelling around a track on a
small, tricked out bicycle, not least because they would have
done it in the nude- it certainly is a draw.
BMX has a history as colourful as the modern bikes themselves,
and shows just how the Olympic tradition can develop and
change in line with what people want to watch.
Few sports can trace their catalyst back to a single moment,
but BMX is so zeitgeisty that it can. “On Any Sunday”, a
documentary on motorcycles, was released in 1972, sparking
the BMX craze that had been slowly, organically growing for a
decade.
In the opening scene, kids were shown ripping their bikes
through dirt tracks, emulating the dirt-biking adults being
profiled in the film.
They were riding a Schwinn Sting-Ray, a bike that had a short
wheel base that made it hardy and easily customizable. Kids
had been taking their Sting-Rays out onto the tracks since the
60s, but this was the moment when imaginations were fired
across the USA.
Yamaha tapped into this explosion of interest by building a
bike called the Moto-Bike, which was intended to simulate an
actual motorbike, complete with shocks and fenders.
Over the next 10 years, BMX grew steadily more popular.
Magazines were started and had huge circulations. Technology
grew with exposure, to the point where the Sting-Ray was
rendered obsolete and all riders were on the back of dedicated
BMX bikes.
By 1983, ESPN was televising races that had prize money of
$15,000. In Spielberg’s classic of the same year, E.T.: The Extra-
Terrestrial, a BMX bike chase is central to the plot.
While there was no push for the sport to become Olympic, it
was certainly central to the sporting paradigm of the 1980s.
When course racing was at its peak, a fringe version was
developing that would eventually eclipse the dirt-n-jumps
version. Not every kid on the back of a BMX has access to a fully
pimped out track, but they did have the urban environment.
Following the lead from skaters in San Francisco, they would
take their bikes to open concreted areas and racing would
often give way to attempting tricks. Empty pools made for
excellent venues; but stairs, handrails and walls provided
other challenges for these urban riders.
Freestyle was cool: the tricks the best riders executed ensured
that by 1984 it had started to draw attention, and with it
sponsorship, away from racing: be it the “flat track” or “dirt”
variety.
BMX had changed, but its greatest existential threat arrived in
the early 90s with the mountain bike craze.
The bigger frame and changing sensibilities of riders meant
that BMX became rather a sideshow. One of the hallmarks of
the 90s was a patronising disdain for the previous decade, with
its hair bands, mullets and shoulder pads. BMX was suddenly
decidedly not cool.
Its survival is down to the passion of a core group of riders and
the professionalism of the American Biking Association, which
started the International BMX Federation in 1981. Together,
they kept tournaments alive and kept developing technologies
along with newer and more flamboyant tricks.
In 1996, riders started going brakeless, an innovation that
made the sport even more breathless.
With extreme sports becoming more mainstream in the 2000s,
freestyling BMX shook off its eighties reputation and became
more popular as a spectator and participant sport. With this
surge, the flat track and dirt version enjoyed a revival as well.
At the same time, the Winter Olympics had introduced new
sports such as snow boarding to the schedule. These drew
new and younger audiences, which inspired the International
Olympic Committee to start casting about for new sports to
give the summer version a bit more pop.
BMX appeared an easy fit. By then, the sport was controlled
by the International Cycling Union, which already had all its
agreements in place with the IOC. BMX could simply be slotted
in, replacing a time-trial track event that had waning support.
Debuted in the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the sport proved
popular and has stayed on the roster since.
The aim of the game is simple: eight riders belt it through
a course replete with jumps and dips. The bikes are still
essentially the motorbike-cross design of the 80s, but with
updated specs inspired by new technologies. They don’t
feature shock absorbers, so the riders have to communicate
to the track through their body and bike.
The track gives the riders very little peace. Measuring between
300 and 400 metres, they require the rider to anticipate
the rises and turns while keeping half an eye on the other
competitors.
BMX is a must-watch sport in the Olympics. It might not have
the profile or glamour of the traditional sports, but it belongs
to the sporting public by virtue of its non-elitist past and
exciting present.
Touchline issue 24 | September 2016 | 17