Is BMX a sport at Tokyo Olympics 2021?

The 2021 Tokyo Olympics are less than a month away. The world’s grandest sporting event is set to showcase the world’s finest athletes from July 23 to August 8, 2021. A total of 339 events are set to take place across 33 sports and 50 disciplines of which Cycling will feature 22 events. The sport of cycling can be further broken down into five disciplines. And among them are two which feature BMX cycling.

BMX Racing

First introduced in 2008, the discipline of BMX Racing has come a long way since its humble origins. The sport of BMX Racing made its Olympics debut at the 2008 Beijing Games and immediately became a crowd favorite.

The race is carried out on a track full of obstacles, steep slopes, descents, and banked corners. All of these elements help make the race a high-octane affair that one wouldn’t want to miss.

A total of 24 qualified athletes will represent their countries at both men’s and women’s events. In Tokyo, the format for both events shall remain the same.

The athletes will be broken up into three groups containing eight racers each. The top four riders from each group based on their ranking will proceed to the next round. 

BMX Freestyle

This is the latest entrant to come under the umbrella of cycling at the Olympics. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had announced back in 2017 that BMX Freestyle would be added to the Tokyo Games as a separate event.

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Rumbling of BMX freestyle being added as an Olympic event had been doing the rounds for years. And finally, that idea will be coming to fruition in Tokyo. 

For both Men’s and Women’s events, Riders will go out to put on a show for the judges and audience over a span of two minutes. Set to take place at a dedicated BMX park, riders will look to pull off a series of tricks while guiding past various obstacles. 

An expert panel will judge the athletes will be based on the originality, difficulty, and style of the tricks performed by them during their two-minute run.  

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