BMX in Summer Olympics

[Neo]

I don't know if this has been posted yet:

http://www.cbc.ca/pcgi-bin/templates/sportsView.cgi?/news/2003/06/30/Sports/bmx030630

[Millstone]

BMX racing is hard. Oh and it's about time.

[David]

why not MTB?
how come they chose bmx over mtb, i don't see the reasoning for this?
but i guess it pretty cool

[Neo]

there is mtb. XC was in the last olympics.

[NOM4D]

let me see that tho--oo-ooong! i like it when your bootie goes- that thong-tho-thothong thong!--- i like the way, i like the way--- baby!
oh, yeah, cool... i hope peeps use flats too, as well...

[243_ht]

Originally posted by David
why not MTB?
how come they chose bmx over mtb, i don't see the reasoning for this?
but i guess it pretty cool

cause bmx racing has been around for quite a while, probably about 30 years or so, downhill mountain biking has not been added yet, but xc has.

[BuckChoklit]

Odd, I htought BMX was 8 in the gate.

[VPS RiDeR]

there is mountain biking, its sorta DH/XC

[M13]

time to bring DH 4X and "freeride" over in olympics too!!

nice seeing bmx in.

i hope there wont be mx in olympics EVER

+M13-

[theoriginalhardcore]

well there is still biking in there at least
but when i red this i thought that it would have been like bmx half pipe

[.glib]

Originally posted by M13
i hope there wont be mx in olympics EVER

+M13-
No motorized sports yet I think. I don't expect them to change that. It's always been about the athletes' own power.

[Biker Kid]

I wonder if the course will be on par with like an x-games course, or if they'll tame it down or make it even more challenging?

[rcoope]

This is great and shows that the Olympics can move in the right direction. Track is all fine and good, and I'm sure it's fun to do, but the fact is, it's been terminally unpopular for years. Where it is popular, like in Denmark, it's tied in with gambling, which is fine, but that's not a sports model that will work elswhere, where, for example, horse racing is the betting sport of choice. It was also a very popular sport with Communist countries like East Germany, because they could focus a lot of effort on an interationally obscure sport which awarded lots of medals. Now, track survives because it is in the olympics, and therefore national federations get funding to develop track racers.

It wouldn't really matter if track was popular or not vis-a-vis government funding, but for this: You could probably build 20 BMX racing tracks for each racing track, and the latter are ridiculously expensive to maintain. BMX tracks are much more useful for the general fitness of the population as well, so utilitarian arguments come down strongly in favour of the latter.

You might ask how unpopular and expensive sports like track and bobsled (the poposed $50 million bobsleightrack for Whistler is F&*%ing criminal) got into the olympics in the first pace. You might also ask why sports like BMX, with many more participants, are considered obscure or alternative. When the olympics were re-created around 100 years ago, organizers had think up enough sports beyond track and field, to make the event interesting. So they did. Some, like obstacle course swimming and bike polo, in the first couple of games, got dropped. others, like modern pentatholon stayed. Starting with Hitler, and continuing though the cold war and up to now, governments have funded sport for political reasons - and the funding is concentrated on that biggest of sports properties - the olympics. As a result, all over the world there are these self perpetuating bereaureacies which take government money and produce atheletes in weird and obscure sports, that without the funding, no one would participate in.

Meanwhile, the olympics confers quite a bit of credibility on the sports within the fold. This is partly because of age. Sports that have been around for a long time always get taken more seriously. The media plays a big role as well though. The worlds english speaking sports media outside Australia and New Zealand is mostly clueless when it comes to non-stick-and-ball sports, so they look to the Olympics to tell them if a sport is to be taken seriously or not.

I think what IOC president Jacques Rogge is doing now is very positive. He's cutting as much of the track stuff as he can get away with, so allowing a completely different sport, without the addition of more total athletes. It's not about BMX's "extremeness" either. BMX racing has been around for more 40 years and is a popular family sport. Since I also happen to beleive that a BMX racing background is the root of all good cycling, I say Bravo Jacques!

[freerider guy]

^^^ I concer!!

[M.W.]

Originally posted by David
why not MTB?
how come they chose bmx over mtb, i don't see the reasoning for this?


XC is in there.

They chose BMX over MTB, because BMX is way better to watch on TV. And if it's DH BMX vs. 4x, they do the same thing, only there's more of them on course at the same time, and they're on little tiny bikes with no suspension.

[M.W.]

Originally posted by NOM4D
let me see that tho--oo-ooong! i like it when your bootie goes- that thong-tho-thothong thong!--- i like the way, i like the way--- baby!
oh, yeah, cool... i hope peeps use flats too, as well...

I :heart: DAMON!

[Millstone]

Originally posted by rcoope
.....

Wow, someone's enthusiastic. :P

[M.W.]

Originally posted by M13
time to bring DH 4X and "freeride" over in olympics too!!


I hope not.

Anyone else think that freeride contests are a bit of an oxymoron?

[Millstone]

Originally posted by M.W.
Anyone else think that freeride contests are a bit of an oxymoron?

mmmhmmm.