The long awaited and one-year delayed Olympic games are finally here! This will be the fourth Olympiad for the sport of BMX Racing, and American riders are highly favored to bring home the Gold.
Racing takes place this Thursday and Friday in Tokyo, with BMX freestyle making its Olympic debut on Saturday and Sunday. That means that here in America, competition can be viewed one day earlier, in the evening.
Thurs, July 29 = Quarterfinals
Friday, July 30 = Semis and Finals
After years of racing for Country points to qualify the maximum of three riders, and individual riders competing for the most UCI points to earn a spot on their countries Olympic team, the final 48 riders (24 men / 24 women) have been decided. Let’s take a look at your 2021 BMX Olympians:
ELITE MEN: (24 Riders)
FRANCE (3 men)
Joris Daudet – FRANCE
Sylvain Andre – FRANCE
Romain Mahieu – FRANCE
NETHERLANDS (3 men)
Niek Kimmann – NETHERLANDS
Twan van Gendt – NETHERLANDS
Joris Harmsen – NETHERLANDS
USA (2 men)
Connor Fields – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Corben Sharrah – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
SWITZERLAND (2 men)
David Graf – SWITZERLAND
Simon Marquart – SWITZERLAND
COLOMBIA (2 men)
Carlos Ramirez – COLOMBIA
Vincent Pelluard – COLOMBIA
COUNTRIES (who qualified 1 spot)
Anthony Dean – AUSTRALIA
Kye Whyte – GREAT BRITAIN
Exequiel Torres – ARGENTINA
Renato Rezende – BRAZIL
Alfredo Campo – ECUADOR
Alex Limberg – SOUTH AFRICA
Tore Navrestad – NORWAY
James Palmer – CANADA
Evgeny Kleshchenko – RUSSIA
Giacomo Fantoni – ITALY
Helvijs Babris – LATVIA
Yoshi Nagasako – JAPAN
ELITE WOMEN: (24 Riders)
The NETHERLANDS (3 women)
Laura Smulders – NETHERLANDS
Merel Smulders – NETHERLANDS
Judy Baauw – NETHERLANDS
USA (3 women)
Alise Willoughby – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Felicia Stancil – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Payton Ridenour – UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
FRANCE (2 women)
Axelle Etienne – FRANCE
Manon Valentino – FRANCE
COUNTRIES (who qualified 1 spot)
Natalia Afremova – RUSSIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
Natalia Suvorova – RUSSIAN OLYMPIC COMMITTEE
Saya Sakakibara – AUSTRALIA
Lauren Reynolds – AUSTRALIA
Mariana Pajon – COLOMBIA
Priscilla Stevaux Carnaval – BRAZIL
Rebecca Petch – NEW ZEALAND
Simone Christensen – DENMARK
Zoé Claessens – SWITZERLAND
Drew Mechielsen – CANADA
Bethany Shriever – GREAT BRITAN
Dome Azuero – ECUADOR
Sae Hatakeyama – JAPAN
Vineta Pétersone – LATVIA
Elke Vanhoof – BELGIUM
Sky Chutikan – THAILAND