USAC BMX Elite Portraits

During our trip to the US Olympic Training Center/Chula Vista earlier this month, we were privileged to shoot individual headshots of all the riders taking part in the Elite Camp. We thought you’d enjoy seeing some of your favorite riders suited up in their Team USA Jerseys.

We are saving the goof-around outtakes for a more opportune time

Check Out The Photo Gallery Now

Going for 2012 Olympic Gold? Well, Here It Is.

Olympic energy is in the air this week, as 165 of the best BMX Racers in the world descend on London town for the BMX Supercross “Test Event.” Think of it as a sort of dress rehearsal for the organizers, the track operations folks and some of the hyper-dedicated riders who will be bedding down in the Olympic Village, 354 days and a wakeup from today.

Recently, the London 2012 Organizing Committee released this specimen of the 2012 Gold Medal.
The medals were designed by British artist David Watkins, with the Gold repping the London 2012 logo. The Silver and Bronze medals depict Nike, the shoe goddess Greek Goddess of Victory, “stepping out of the Parthenon to arrive in the host city.”

The medals will be made at the headquarters of the Royal Mint in Wales, with the engravings on the rim for the sport and discipline, as well as the athletes’ name. Approximately 700 gold medals will be awarded in London.

The London medals are larger and thicker than at previous games. They weigh 375-400g, well over Beijing’s medals at 200g, and the Barcelona 1992 medals at 231g

In fact, the “formal suits” of the athletes had to be adjusted, with pockets made larger to accommodate the beefier hardware.

BMXNews.com is on “Olympic Watch” from now til the games, so keep an eye right here for ongoing coverage.

Interesting fact: the “gold” medal is actually only 1.34 percent gold. The balance is 92.5 percent silver, and 6.16% copper.

Editorial: The Fight For BMX Racing’s Identity

We all know the adage “Be careful what you wish for…you might get it,” and nowhere does it apply more profoundly than in BMX Racing of the modern era.

Our sport has struggled with an identity crisis, almost from day one–with some of the earliest perceptions being that BMX was done with motors on bicycles (due to the improper pronunciation as “Bicycle MOTORcross”).

Jump a couple hundred calendar pages, and you’re in the early 2000s. What was previously known as “BMX Freestyle” had, by this time, decided it was too labor intensive to use the extra word, and claimed de-facto ownership of the term “BMX” by using it far and wide, to mean dirt, vert, park, street and flatland. Yes, period.

Um…EXCUSE us! We’re right over here (waving arms, as if stranded on a desert island, with a helicopter in view). I guess they couldn’t hear us.

Today, talk to any mom, dad or hip uncle at the soccer pitch, ice cream social or church car wash, and tell them your kid races BMX, and you will inevitably hear “oh, wow…he does all those flips and tricks?” You just KNEW they were going to say that, didn’t you? Even though you were careful to say “RACES” BMX.

This weekend marks the first of many steps leading up to the 2012 London Olympics–the “Test Event.” This is an honest-to-goodness UCI BMX Supercross World Cup event, big time Olympic qualifying points, and even more big time than all that: network coverage on NBC. BMX News reported this back on July 25, but in case you missed it, this is real-deal NBC, not the only-seen-in-a-handful-of-homes Universal Sports. This means that BMX Supercross will be on the same media stage as last week’s Dew Tour event in Portland, which is awesome, and something we have been longing for in this sport.

See what I just did there? I said “BMX Supercross,” not “BMX Racing.” And in that statement, lies the point of this editorial.

To those of us way up in it, BMX Racing and BMX Supercross are…shall we say…fraternal twins. Possessed of similar DNA, but not identical either. What Maris, Connor, Arielle, Mariana and the rest of our best are doing this weekend is BMX Racing–and yet it isn’t. So, how do we convey that to a TV audience? Is anyone in charge of conveying it? Is it even important it BE conveyed?

To really answer that last question, we have to look at the long-debated topic of “growing the sport.” Now, that is a topic much too thick for this discussion, but let’s pull one of the low-hanging fruit off that very-broad topic and do a bit of role-play (which would be fully realized by about the fourth post of any Vintage thread, so we are just fast-forwarding reality here);

“We need BMX Racing on Television.”

OK…why?

“So it can grow the sport.”

“How will it grow the sport?”

“People will see it, get stoked on it, and want to do it”

Ah-HA! You’ve finally said it (well, I said it for you, but you WOULD have said it). The reason we want media coverage for the sport is so it might grow the sport, and that is accomplished by people seeing BMX Racing and wanting to do it.

If that is true, we have to ask, in follow up to that: Can showing BMX Supercross to a few million people on NBC help with growing the sport? Yes, if people understand there is a disconnect between what they are seeing, and what they or their kids will be doing when they go down to the local track…that is, if they even KNOW there is such a thing as a local track.

The bottom line to all this is that this is a “test event” for us too. BMX racing is squandering a massive opportunity to further its cause if the producers of the NBC Olympic coverage are not properly schooled on the differences between “classic” BMX Racing and the BMX Supercross they will be showing.

BMX Racing needs few two-minute “vignettes” that can go into their coverage to show the world how these superheroes got started in the sport. It wasn’t on a 30-foot-high starting ramp, it was on a modest dirt track in Happy Valley or Las Vegas, San Diego, Bakersfield or any number of other local tracks where, tomorrow, your son or daughter could start an Olympic dream of their own–in BMX Racing.

If this is not done, and we just let the audience figure it out for themselves, we will have missed the golden opportunity for another four years– by which time, it is highly likely that BMX Freestyle (now known most simply as “BMX”), will grow into our Olympic and media sandbox like creeping charlie invades my lawn.

But that’s tomorrow’s problem. Today’s problem is to create proper messaging to prevent BMX Racing from losing its identity yet-again, to BMX Supercross.

We have wished for BMX Racing to be on network television. And now we are going to see that wish realized. What will come next, as we look back on this granted wish, in a couple years?

—Mike Carruth, August 17, 2011

Join the discussion: We are talking about this topic on VintageBMX.com. Click here to have your opinions heard

UCI BMX Supercross to Air on NBC This August

Got a release from GSX late last week with news that the London Supercross (aka the London 2012 “Test Event”), will be broadcast on the NBC Network on August 21 (3:30PM, Eastern Time). This is the “mainstream” NBC network that reaches almost every home in the United States…so definitely awesome news for BMX Racing.

Then, in September, the Chula Vista SX will be aired on Universal Sports on October 1 at 7PM Eastern Time. Universal Sports is available on many cable systems, and also with a digital converter box, as a sideband to your local NBC affiliate. Unfortunately, subscribers without a set-top box, or with Dish Network, DirecTV or U-Verse will have to go buddy up to someone at the local sports bar & grille to see the action.

USA Cycling Announces London SX Crew

We were half-expecting this after the worlds next week, but with only two weeks between CPH and the London Olympics “Test Event,” Team USA has rostered a dozen riders to make the trip.

Men
1. Corben Sharrah (Tucson, AZ – GT Bicycles) SX ranked #2
2. Nic Long (Lakeside, CA. – Haro/Rockstar) SX ranked #12
3. David Herman (Wheat Ridge, CO – Intense BMX) SX ranked #14
4. Josh Meyers- (Treasure Island, FL – Ssquared/Answer)
5. Mike Day (San Diego, CA – GT/Red Bull)
6. Connor Fields (Henderson, NV – Chase BMX)

Women
1. Arielle Martin (Spanaway, WA – Intense BMX)- SX ranked #9
2. Amanda Carr (Punta Gorda, FL – Endeavor/Ripxx Racing) – SX ranked #15
3. Brooke Crain (Visalia, CA – Haro/Rockstar) – SX ranked #17
4. Alise Post (St. Cloud, MN – Redline Bicycles)
5. Amanda Geving (Largo, FL – MCS/Troy Lee Designs)
6. Dani George (Palmdale, CA – Supercross BMX)

Best of luck to Team USA at both the UCI BMX World Championships, and the London SX. With 386 days til the next Olympic BMX gate falls, it’s getting all-too-real for this pack of powerhouses.

BMXers Not the Only Lot Facing Tough 2012 Course

Found this in The Telegraph today…seems BMXers are not the only ones getting stepped-up, more extreme courses for London 2012. Even the equestrian courses are getting amped up for the games. The current course at Greenwich Park has 19 jumps on it. That will be beefed up to 40 jumps for the final Olympic course. Their course is being compared to a BMX Track.

The article doesn’t quite reach the point of athletes openly criticizing the course, but Olympic hopeful, Pippa Funnell, was quoted in the piece as saying “It was quite nerve-racking. If it was Primmore’s Pride [her Athens 2004 ride] I would be dreading it, because he is so strong.”

On June 5, BMX News ran a feature story where 10 current BMX Supercross stars and Olympic hopefuls for the London games spoke out on their opinions on the Papendal SX track, they had raced on the week prior. When the final design for the London 2012 track was rather unceremoniously unveiled (we didn’t even receive a press release on it, and picked it up on an off-beat foriegn media website), it was clear that the Olympic track was a near-replica to the Papendal track, as had been rumored.

Just this weekend, in Salt Lake City, there was talk of riders organizing themselves to push back on the London course design (which will host the Olympic Test event next month), via a rider strike on the London event. The goal of such a move would be to get changes implemented on the London course that riders feel are necessary.

In email exchanges with some of the Elites who were in SLC, it seems this was more of a “what if” discussion among friends versus a formal “sign here” kind of thing. But the people we spoke to also said that their resolve is strong to get their grievances heard and acted upon.

BMX NEWS will be monitoring all developments on this important topic in the days and weeks ahead, and we will have coverage of the London Supercross next month, so stay tuned!

Here is a link to the article on The Telegraph website

Corben Sharrah Hits the Pages of Sports Illustrated

‘Tis the season for Olympic sponsors to start revving up the PR engine, as athletes start revving up their game in the dash to London 2012.

Straight out of the gate, comes a special advertising section from McDonald’s, entitled “Time|Out.” The section will run in an upcoming issue of Sports Illustrated and, though we have not seen the section in-full just yet, we can assume that it highlights up-and-coming athletes in Olympic sports. A similar section highlighted Apollo Ohno in 2004 (though, at that point, Ohno already had a Gold and a Silver medal from the Salt Lake games)

The interview covers some good ground, both on Corben and for BMX racing in general, allowing the reader a rare peek into how top athletes started down the path of their chosen sport. In Corben’s case, he says “My parents got me a bike when I was two, and I was riding it with no training wheels, basically the first time out. When I was five, this dirt track nearby had commercials on TV. I’d call the phone number, but hang up because I didn’t know what to say. So my dad took me one night to watch. The next week, he took me to ride. Ever since, I’ve been racing.”

A big thanks to McDonald’s for shining the spotlight on the great sport of BMX Racing, and on a tremendous athlete in Corben Sharrah. You chose very well.

News will update this story when we find out in which issue the section will appear–you’ll want to pick up a copy!

—Mike Carruth

Lex Gillette’s “Blind Faith” in BMX Racing

Story and Interview By Mike Carruth, Photos via YouTube

On BMX News, one of our primary goals is to bring you stories of extraordinary athletic accomplishment in the face of adversity. The rider who’s brain says “I can’t,” but who’s heart says “I must.” Our content is, by-and-large, all BMX, but the people who embody that credo are not always necessarily BMXers, by career.

Last October, we ran a story, written by Intense BMX Elite star Arielle Martin, talking about a day she spent on the Chula Vista Supercross track. It was not a story of the fastest lap time, or clearing this set or that. It was the story of a friend helping someone understand BMX racing in a way they otherwise could not, without her help.

That “someone” was two-time Paralympic Track & Field Silver Medalist, Elexis “Lex” Gillette. Lex is completely blind, but wanted to better understand the environment all his BMX friends at the OTC encounter on their day-to-day quest to make the 2012 US Olympic BMX Team.

Lex lives at the US Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista full-time, just like other Olympic (and Paralympic) hopefuls who are training full-time to represent our country in London next year. Lex’s training is substantially the same as any other athlete on the property, with special consideration given to their specific sport and unique training needs.

The day Arielle and Lex spent walking the track is wonderfully-accounted in the link below, so if you have not previously read it, we encourage you to do so.

But first, fast-forward to last week, when Arielle, and a few other OTC friends helped Lex take his curiosity for BMX racing a step further. They pulled an official “USA” jersey over his shoulders, strapped a helmet on his head and took him, aboard a “Team USA” Intense Podium, out to the last straight of the Beijing-replica track, for him to RIDE a BMX Supercross track, firsthand.

Video Of Arielle helping Lex ride the Chula Vista SX Track (will open in new window)

Now, to you and me, that might be challenge enough. But, think about doing it with a blindfold on, which is basically how Lex experienced it, and it elevates things to a whole new level of challenge.

The link to the video is also below, but we just had to get the full story from Lex’s own lips on his journey from being told, at eight years old, that he would never see again…to the Athens, then Beijing, Paralympic Games…and then to riding a BMX track that only our sport’s most celebrated and talented riders ever get the chance to ride.

It’s an interview that the entire family, regardless of age, should listen to, and underscores, in the most profound way, how you CAN do anything you set your mind to doing, regardless of the obstacles you may initially perceive are in your way.

Click Below to Listen To The Podcast

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Arielle’s BMX News article on Lex’s first walk on the track

Audio: The Song “Crazy,” By Lex Gillette, on his first BMX experience

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

YouTube Video of Lex In Action in the Longjump

Lex Gillette on Twitter

Editor’s note: at :24 in the Podcast, we say Lex competed in two “Olympic” games. That should have been “Paralympic” Games. We apologize for the error.

Liam Phillips Off BMX Track, On Another

The press release has been out there for a week or so that Liam Phillips was going to hang up his 65 plate, and move over to the left-turn lifestyle of track cycling. Vintage had a mysterious thread yesterday, entitled “Olympian done with SX tracks,” but no word if this thread is about Liam’s exit from the game, or if there may be further stars in the BMX SX universe to spin out of our orbit.

BBC Sport ran a piece on Liam today, where the full story is laid down. The window of opportunity to make the team is only about another eight months, so it was kind of now or never.

Add to that, the fact that, In the BBC piece, Liam makes no bones about the bummer factor in getting broke off, SX style, saying “I was sick to death of BMX injuries and knew if there was another route to the Olympics, I’d be stupid not to take it…I haven’t completed a full season in the last four years. Every year I’ve had to miss races due to injury. Broken wrists, collarbones, a couple of shoulder surgeries, it’s been endless.”

Liam may very well be in luck in making the team, as BMX athletes are among the most versatile
in cycling, and usually do exceptionally well when crossing over to the other disciplines. We are definitely pulling for him as he puts the ponies down. Because, no matter how much spandex one packs on, they’re always a BMXer. And if when he gets the itch to gate up in the future, he won’t have far to travel, as the Olympic BMX track, expected to be a permanent “local” track right in central London, is literally across the plaza from the velodrome.

But on to the REAL news… if Liam’s Twitter feed is telling it true, he’s gonna have to bag the beard, and chances are that the whiskers have been kicked by the time you read this.

Finally, we hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but Liam, keep your first-turn BMXer sensibilities about you, as it can get pretty rough & tumble out there. Exhibit A, via YouTube.

Links

BBC Sport Article on Liam Phillips

Liam Phillips on Twitter

Opportunity Window Closing on Olympic Tickets

If you have BMX dreams for London 2012, and can’t make it down the SX hill faster than Connor or Corben, then your best chance of seeing the action live and in person is from the stands.

And securing tickets to the precise event you want to see is not necessarily as easy as standing outside Wrigley field on a Tuesday Afternoon. Well, maybe it will be…but maybe not…do you want to take that chance?

A certain number of tickets are allocated to each country, with “about 75%” going to the host country and EU countries. Getting your tix legit has some hoops to it, that’s for sure.

There was a “request period” between March 15 and April 22 where people had the opportunity to send in requests for their preferred tickets (in this case, to the August 8, 9, and/or 10 BMX events). Obviously, that ship has sailed.

Next chance will be the so-called “live sales” phase, where you will compete on the field of battle with your countrymen, via the Web, for the remaining first-come-first-served tickets.

The live sales period starts June 28 at http://www.cosport.com

Cosport recommends that, if you have designs on getting in on the Live Sales phase, you create your account on their site well in advance, so all information is set when the big day comes, and you’re familiar with how their site is laid out.

There will be five seating “Zones,” with the A-tickets being best and closest to the action (Cosport did not have seating charts available for this venue yet, and the BMX Track page on London2012.com gives a “Page Not Found” error).

London 2012, BMX Ticket Pricing

August 8, 2012, 3:00PM – Men & Women Seeding (Time Trials)
A – $207
B – $142
C – $120
D – $87
E – $44

August 9, 2012, 3:00PM – Men Quarterfinals
A – $207
B – $142
C – $120
D – $87
E – $44

August 10, 2012, 3:00PM – Men & Women Semis, Finals and Medal Ceremony
A – $272
B – $163
C – $120
D – $98
E – $44

The “best” day is the finals and medal day–for obvious reasons, but also because it is the only day you’ll see Men and Women in group competition. The prior two days, you will not see the women in group competition at all.

Official sources are characteristically tight-lipped on whether street sales (aka “scalping”) will be a viable option in London, or if those types will be hammered hard enough to disappear from the streets. It seems that wherever you have tickets, you’ll have local “entrepreneurs” looking to help you get one…but, again, with so few tickets available, taking the gamble could result in you watching it on the “tele,” in the hotel room.

Helluva Time With Hotels

Unless you’re buying a tour package, securing hotel accommodations this early is going to be a challenge. Every site we tried would not permit bookings as far out as August 6, 2012. Although, we admit, we did not spend all that much time trying to wend our way through any workarounds…just the straight-on approach. Stay on it, and brace yourself, it’s going to be expensive.

Speaking of tour packages, Cosport has some doozies…but none of them include the BMX events, and the tickets included in their packages cannot be substituted. “You could always try your luck at buying individual tickets to those events,” they say…”but it is, by no means, guaranteed you’ll get what you’re looking for once the live sales phase begins.”

I have read on some Olympic Games blogs that Craigslist is a place to find, or seek “sleepover” opportunities (basically the ability to crash on a local family’s couch or guestroom for about half what a regular room would cost). That is the “hitchhikers guide to the Olympic Games” approach, at least.

With 463 days til the BMX action gets going in London, there is little time, so tarry no more on your tix.

Next Page »