At Tokyo 2020, BMX freestyle will make its Olympic Games debut, with competitions taking place on July 31 and August 1. After becoming a regular competition in the X Games, the discipline was eventually recognized by cycling’s global governing body, the UCI, which had the first Urban Cycling World Championships in 2017. The newly added sport joins BMX Racing, which debuted at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
There are a lot of debates on where freestyle originated. Nevertheless, Bob Harro was undoubtedly one of the original pioneers, known as the godfather of freestyle. The first documented rock walk was completed by him in the parking lot of Wizard Publications in Torrance, California, during the late 1970s. In the years following, his career flourished, and he created several of the BMX stunts featured in the famous 1980 film “E.T.”.
How Freestyle Works at the Olympics
The two-day competition will feature 18 riders, including nine women and nine men. A five-member panel assesses riders’ BMX freestyle stunt performance by evaluating terms such as difficulty, originality, execution, height, and creativity. The judges score riders based on their assessment of the quality of their performance. Each participant will get two runs of 60 seconds each, with judges scoring them between zero and 100; their average score is the score for that heat. During the final, each rider gets two runs – the highest score wins.
In addition to backflips, tailwhips, barspins, and superman, there will be plenty of tricks to keep viewers interested (veteran and new alike). To new fans, BMX Superman involves removing both feet from the pedals and pushing them backwards so that the rider’s body is parallel to the ground.
When to Watch
The qualifying process for both Men’s and Women’s classes will begin at 9:10 PM eastern on Friday night. Finals will be held the following night at 9:10 PM eastern, beginning with the women’s class.
Men
Logan Martin (Australia)
On the brink of his debut at the Olympics, Martin has solidified his position as the main favorite in the Men’s class. A few of the most recent competitions in which the young 28-year-old has excelled include the X Games BMX Park (2018–2019) and most recently in Montpellier, France, he won his second gold medal in the UCI BMX Freestyle World Championships. With virtually every major freestyle competition outside of the Olympics under his belt, Martin will have the attitude that he can come in and win the Olympic Gold in his debut.
Rim Nakamura (Japan)
In the freestyle class, Nakamura, who is a native of the host nation, offers the only legitimate chance of winning gold for Japan. While Martin appears to be the clear-cut favorite, Nakamura may provide the surprise upset. Among his achievements so far include winning the 2019 UCI World Championship and earning silver at the 2019 X Games in Minneapolis. It is the amount of air he gets on a bicycle that makes Nakamura stand out from his competitors. At only 19 years of age, Nakamura is just scratching the surface of his potential.
Women
Hannah Roberts (USA)
The first American freestyle rider to qualify for the Olympics, Roberts will be a formidable challenger in the women’s class. She began her sporting career with the most humble of starts. At age 10, Roberts fell from a six-foot ramp, resulting in her wearing a back brace for a month. Despite this incident, Roberts entered her first competition only a year later. Now with her career maturing, so have the accolades. Consider that she has claimed three gold medals in just the last two years. Among the American riders contending for a possible gold medal, she is the clear leader. She would be the youngest U.S. Olympic cyclist in over a century to win a medal.
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Charlotte Worthington (GB)
Unlike most competitors at this event, Worthington only became seriously invested in the sport into her early twenties. After leaving her job as a chef in 2017, she would dedicate full time to cycling. Within two years, she qualified for the Cycling Team of Great Britain. During the same year, she became the BMX Freestyle European Champion. Recent results have seen Worthington win a bronze medal at the UCI world championships.
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