If anyone was in any doubt about BMX racing’s status as an extreme sport, then yesterday’s Olympic quarterfinals would have shut them up.
As the riders went head-to-head in heats of eight for the first time, the Rio crowds were treated to the kind of brutal action that so far had been confined to the boxing ring.
“We watched the UK’s Jade Jones win her Taekwondo medal last night and her display of head-kicking had nothing on the beating these riders took.”
Honestly, we watched the UK’s Jade Jones win her Taekwondo medal last night and her display of head-kicking had nothing on the beating these riders took.
Niek Kimmann Crash! pic.twitter.com/zDhETGGYHm
— FuzzBead (@FuzzBead) August 19, 2016
One of the gnarlier incidents saw France’s Joris Daudet mis-hit a kicker and knock Niek Kimmann of the Netherlands off balance. He missed the gap and slammed into the knuckle of the landing ramp with such force that he snapped his fork and sent his front wheel spinning off into the air.
Not wanting to lose out on valuable placing points completely, Kimmann got up quickly and grabbed the remains of his bike, hobbling all the way round the rest of the track and over the finish line. Fair play to the lad, after a crash like this we’re amazed he got up at all!
But Kimmann is obviously made of pretty strong stuff. He later went on to ride in his next two races, earning himself in today’s semi-final.
A separate incident saw Britain’s great medal hope, Liam Phillips, crash badly taking himself out of the competition altogether. Team GB’s other rider Kyle Evans also came a cropper, failing to earn enough points over the three races to advance from his heat.