Olympic BMX

BMX - a Long-term Olympic Sport?

Quite why the Olympic Committee with the compliance of the UCI decided that adding BMX meant cutting back at the Velodrome is hard to fathom. And back in 2005 there were serious attempts from the grassroots to reverse the decision. A decision that did not save any money - since both tracks had still to be built. And it did not streamline the overall Games schedules since the two venues operate independently; events can be run at both at the same time. And the dropped events - the 500m and 1km - have normally been some of the first in the Games schedules to reach a conclusion; with no heats or repecharges to go through. With a field of, say, 50 competitors the whole procedure can be completed in an afternoon. So why make a change? And who forced it through?

The UCI say it was the IOC "They came to us 18 months ago asking for the inclusion of BMX. We agreed to that and knew we'd have to drop two medals to accommodate BMX” said Pat McQuaid in June 2005. That implies there are just two Olympic BMX events to contest at the new Laoshan track - hardly a full programme. Certainly the trial event had only two winners.

Will future Games organisers agree to build specialist venues for such a small programme? Certainly the plans for 2012 in London include BMX - and more BMX tracks will get built in many countries over the next few years due to Games involvement. But seems like it is the sport’s bureaucrats, rather than the riders, that are setting the agenda.

The reasons suggested for adding BMX are; it is popular with millions of BMX bikes sold per year; it is commercial with plenty of products to promote and it is aimed at “youth”. No problems with all of these reasons - but then why not skate boarding in the Olympics as well? It meets all the points in the reasoning. As does roller-blading; a sport apparently already proposed!

Looking at the real world situation, a typical BMX club does not have ambitions or facilities to train elite athletes. In the UK there are only 19 English and 1 Scottish BMX clubs affiliated to British Cycling - the UCI-recognised governing body. With some of these being BMX sections with a cycling club. Looking at the 2007 UK Rankings you can see how small the BMX rider population is - just 22 “Elite Men” are listed; with Shanaze Reade included amongst the men!

BMX is great fun for boys and girls - and should be encouraged; but this is not the same as being an Olympic sport. Most countries do not have a sufficient BMX competition structure to create a professional class. Back at the velodrome the 1 km time trial was dropped because - according to McQuaid - only 24 countries entered the 2004 event and the medal winners were predictable. But I’m pretty sure that Michael Phelps was not the surprise winner of those 6 swimming gold medals - and this predicability was no reason to cutback events in the pool. We will have to wait until next August to see how the Olympics BMX events work out. But based on the UCI’s reasoning there will have to be a lot more than 24 countries competing and long-odds outsiders will have to win the medals. Not only to justify including BMX but also to explain the unrelated dropping of track events.

[Update 1-Dec-2007: I now read, in Procycling’s latest issue, that Victoria Pendleton made the same points when interviewed but suggested skate boarding could be the new Olympic sport that will be used to “demand” a cut-back in cycling events. Time to draw up proposals for a greatly extended track programme - attack really is the best defence]

Will BMX survive as an Olympic sport until 2016, 2020 and beyond? Who knows? But will it matter to the vast majority of riders anyway? BMX has reached its current position without the help of the IOC or for that matter much from the UCI. There is just the slight chance that the sport’s administrators are trying to hitch up to someone else’s successful wagon. If BMX came out from under the control of the UCI would it loose any recogition? And would the UCI then get behind the events it should be supporting and press for the restoration of the missing track competitions?