Cycling – BMX

Sport Overview

BMX at Paris 2024

Venues: La Concorde 2 (BMX Freestyle); Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines BMX Stadium (BMX Racing)

Competition Dates: BMX Freestyle – July 30-31 (Days 4-5); BMX Racing – August 1-2 (Days 6-7_

Events: 4 (2 men, 2 women)

Trivia: Test your knowledge!

There are two forms of BMX on the Olympic program – racing and freestyle.

BMX racing has been included on the Olympic program since Beijing 2008. Riders compete side-by-side, shoulder-to-shoulder on short tracks that include jumps, bumps, and tight, banked corners.

The men’s and women’s races both begin with the quarterfinals in which the 24 riders are divided into three heats of eight. Each heat races three times and riders are awarded points according to their placements. The top 12 riders in those cumulative results advance to the semifinals. The riders ranked 13^th to 20^th face off in a single run Last Chance Race from which the first four finishers move onto the semifinals.  

The semifinals see the riders divided into two heats of eight, which will each do three runs. The top eight riders advance to a single run, winner-take-all final.  

BMX freestyle made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 with men’s and women’s park events. Each event features 12 competitors performing a series of figures on different obstacles (such as inclined surfaces, walls, and platforms) within a skate park.

Each rider performs two one-minute runs for the panel of five judges. Taking into account the entire performance, each judge gives each rider a score between 0.00 and 99.99 for each of their two runs. These scores are averaged to arrive at the final, official score.

Judges will evaluate a rider’s sequence of tricks and how they use the course along with the amount of risk included in their runs. Among the things they’ll keep a close eye on are the difficulty of tricks (including their placement and combination), the height achieved on tricks, and the overall flow, originality, style, progression, variety, landings, and execution. Points are deducted for errors such as poor landings (minor error), full stops (medium error) and crashing or throwing away the bike (major errors).

Canada’s Olympic BMX History (Pre-Paris 2024)

Five athletes have competed for Canada in BMX racing since the sport made its Olympic debut. The country’s best result came at Rio 2016 when Tory Nyhaug placed fifth in the men’s race. At Tokyo 2020, Drew Mechielsen posted the best result by a Canadian woman when she finished eighth in the final.

BMX freestyle was first included on the Summer Youth Olympic Games program at Buenos Aires 2018. No Canadian qualified for the discipline’s Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020.