BMX racing is a type of off-road bicycle racing. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing. BMX bicycle races are sprint races on purpose-built off-road single-lap race tracks. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to eight racers, a groomed, serpentine, dirt race course made of various jumps and rollers and a finish line. The course is usually about 15 feet (4.6 m) wide and has large banked corners, which are angled inward, that help the riders maintain speed. The sport of BMX racing is facilitated by a number of regional and international sanctioning bodies. They provide rules for sanctioning the conduct of the flying, specify age group and skill-level classifications among the racers, and maintain some kind of points-accumulation system over the racing season. The sport is very family oriented and largely participant-driven, with riders ranging in age from 2 to 70, and over. Professional ranks exist for both men and women, where the age ranges from 17 to over 40 years old.
The American Bicycle Association (ABA) was a US-based BMX racing governing body in Gilbert, Arizona. In 2011, the ABA merged with the former National Bicycle League and became the present-day USA BMX: The American Bicycle Association. The ABA was founded by Merl Mennenga and Gene Roden in 1977. Reportedly one of the world's largest BMX associations, it has tracks in the United States and in Canada.
David "Tinker" Juarez is an American former professional BMX and cross-country mountain bike racer. His prime competitive years in BMX were from 1978 to 1984 and in mountain bike racing 1986 to 2005. Since late 2005, he has competed as a Marathon mountain bike racer. In all three disciplines, he has won numerous national and international competitions. Most recently, Juarez finished third in the 2006 Race Across America Endurance bicycle race.
Cycling competitions at the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics were held from August 9 to August 23 at the Laoshan Velodrome, Laoshan Mountain Bike Course, Laoshan BMX Field and the Beijing Cycling Road Course.
Thomas Allier is a French professional "Mid/Current School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1993 to 2006. Allier was a member of the French Olympic BMX Team participating in the debut of BMX racing at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. Allier did not make it past the quarter finals.
Shanaze Danielle Reade is a British former bicycle motocross (BMX) racer and track cyclist whose prime competitive years began in 2002. She has won the UCI BMX World Championships three times. Reade is the daughter of a Jamaican father and an Irish mother.
Kyle Bennett was an American professional Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer and Dirt Jumper whose prime competitive years were from 1999 to 2012. He earned the moniker "Butter" for his smooth riding style. On May 10, 2008 he won an automatic spot on the first US BMX Olympic team, a sport that made its debut in the 2008 Summer Olympics. He made it to the finals and finished sixth of the UCI World Cup in Copenhagen, Denmark after winning USA Cycling's year-long series of races as the highest ranking American. and becoming the first member of the BMX Olympic team.
Dale Holmes is a Retired British professional "Old/Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) racer whose prime competitive years were from 1983 to 2009. He now lives in San Diego, California.
The men's BMX racing competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 20–22 at the Laoshan BMX Field, the first to be officially featured in the Olympic cycling program.
The 15th Pan American Games were held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, between 13 July 2007 and 29 July 2007.
Liam Peter Phillips is a BMX racing cyclist representing Great Britain. In 2013 he won the UCI BMX World Championships, his first.
The cycling competitions at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place at five venues between 28 July and 12 August. The venues were the London Velopark for track cycling and BMX, and Hadleigh Farm, in Essex, for mountain biking. The road races took place over a course starting and ending in The Mall in central London and heading out into Surrey, while the time trials started and finished at Hampton Court Palace in Richmond upon Thames. Eighteen events were contested and around 500 athletes participated.
The cycling competitions of the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo featured 22 events in five disciplines. The 2020 Olympics were postponed to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Michal Prokop is a Czech professional BMX and Mountain Bike Four-cross rider. Started his sporting career at the age of five, Prokop has claimed two World Cup circuit gold medals, and three World Championship jerseys in the men's elite category, emerging him as one of the most successful fourcross riders in the sport's brief history.
Cycling at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics was held from August 17 to August 24. The events took place at the Nanjing Olympic Sports Center and Laoshan National Forest Park in Nanjing, China.
The men's BMX race competition at the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon was held on 1 October 2014 at the Ganghwa Asiad BMX Track.
Cycling at the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics was held from 7 to 17 October. The events took place at the Parque Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For the cycling competitions at the 2020 Summer Olympics, the following qualification systems are in place.
The cycling competitions of the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris are scheduled to run at four different venues from 27 July to 11 August, featuring twenty-two events across five disciplines.
This article details the qualifying phase for cycling at the 2024 Summer Olympics. A total of 514 cyclists, with an equal distribution between men and women, will compete in twenty-two medal events across five disciplines at these Games.
