IOC Ruling Nukes All Accrued UCI BMX Olympic Qualifying Points

Earlier this month, the International Olympic Committee made a decision which has the effect of an atom bomb on accumulated qualifying points for all Olympic sports, including BMX Racing. The following is text from a letter which was sent by the UCI to members:

We would like to inform you about recent developments in relation with the qualification systems for the 2012 London Olympic Games.

In this regard, the IOC expressly refused, as a matter of principle, any kind of qualification system based on a period longer than 2 years, despite several meetings and discussions. The UCI regrets the IOC decision because as you know a longer qualification system would better suit the UCI calendars and the development of the disciplines.

Therefore, the MTB and BMX qualification systems for the 2012 Olympics have been modified accordingly, given that they were previously based on a period of more than 2 years. You will find hereunder the main modifications to the qualification systems which suit the IOC criterion. The detailed qualification system will be published on the UCI website upon final approval by the IOC Executive Committee.

BMX:
The rankings by nation are determined by the position of the three best male and three female riders from each nation in the UCI BMX ranking for the period from 06/05/10 (May 06, 2010) to 28/05/12 (May 28, 2012) for Category 1: World Championships; Category 2: UCI BMX Supercross World Cup. And for the period 01/08/10 (August 1, 2010) to 28/05/12 (May 28, 2012) the remaining events on the calendar (Category 3: continental championships; Category 4: International Classic events; Category 5: International events; and Category 6: national championships).

We are fully aware of the inconveniences related to this IOC decision and once again we regret this situation.

Most shocking is that this ruling is effective immediately, and is retroactive, thus wiping out Olympic qualifying points accrued to date. Prior to this ruling, Olympic points started to accumulate for BMX racing as of the Pietermaritzburg, South Africa World Cup event in October, 2009. Thus points from all Supercross World Cup races, and events such as the ABA/UCI series here in North America, are nullified from a 2012 qualifying points perspective.

BMX News is working to get additional information on this story, and will post an update to this Breaking News bulletin when we have the facts in place.