Cycling Preview
At the Olympic Games, there are five major disciplines in the sport of cycling: BMX freestyle, BMX racing, mountain biking, road cycling and track cycling. BMX freestyle is making its debut at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, with several U.S. athletes among the favorites. The U.S. Olympic Cycling Team ranks fifth in the all-time medal table, having earned 55 podium finishes, including five at Rio 2016.
Discipline Overview:
BMX Freestyle:
BMX freestyle is a discipline new to the 2020 Olympic Games where the riders perform two-minute runs executing a sequence of tricks on different obstacles contained within a park designed for BMX riders. Such obstacles include spines, walls, and box jumps, etc. In competition, riders are judged on quality of their performance, taking into account difficulty, originality, and style. U.S. BMX freestyle athletes are among the favorites looking towards the discipline’s Olympic debut. With three world champions – Hannah Roberts (2017 & 2019), Perris Benegas (2018) and Justin Dowell (2018) – it’s apparent that the U.S. not only has top athletes but also the depth to back it up.
BMX Racing:
BMX racing turned 50 in July 2019, tracing its origins to Southern California where kids on modified 20" Schwinn Stingray bicycles would race around a vacant lot in 1969. Unbeknownst to these kids, who were only trying to imitate their motorcycle racing idols, they created a sport of their very own. At first, the sport was called pedal-cross, but eventually, they would settle on bicycle motocross, or BMX for short. Nowadays, BMX racing is a sprint sport where the starting gate is three stories high and jumps are up to forty feet in length. From the start lines, riders go from zero to around 35 mph in roughly two seconds, often producing upwards of 2500 watts coming off of an eight-meter-tall starting hill – and that's only the first two seconds of the race.
American BMX racers who grew up racing had the chance to see the sport make its Olympic debut at Beijing 2008. Team USA went on to win three Olympic medals in Beijing. For the 2016 Games, Team USA had their best result in the Olympic history of the sport with Connor Fields winning men’s gold and Alise Willoughby (Post) winning silver in the women’s event for the U.S. Overall, the USA leads the BMX racing Olympic medal count to date with five Olympic medals (one gold, two silvers and two bronzes).
Mountain Biking:
Mountain biking is another cycling discipline considered to be invented by Americans. The first mountain bike competitions were held in California in the early eighties. Although there are several sub-disciplines within mountain biking, cross-country is the one which is part of the Olympic program. Cross-country races are held on courses that range in distance from four to six kilometers with technical descents, forest roads, rocky paths and obstacles .
U.S. rider Kate Courtney won the 2019 UCI Mountain Bike World Cup overall title and was the world champion in the event in 2018. Up-and-coming rider Christopher Blevins also placed second in the U23 category of the 2018 world championships.
Road Cycling:
Road cycling has been part of the Olympic Games program since its first edition in 1896. Today we see two different types of road events during the Olympic Games: the road race and the individual time trial. Both the road race and time trial at Tokyo 2020 will feature backdrops of Mount Fuji – the men’s road race will climb the lower slopes of Japan’s highest mountain.
During the road race, the riders start together as a group, also known as a peloton or field, with countries using team tactics to best position the nation’s rider who is most suited for the course. The U.S. women have several strong women who could be contenders for medals including reigning national champion Ruth Winder, Coryn Rivera, and Tayler Wiles.
During the individual time trial, riders set off individually at regular intervals (one to two minutes apart). The competitor who completes the course in the fastest time is the winner. The men’s and women’s time trial courses – 44.2 kilometers and 22.1 kilometers respectively – share the same loop, though the men will complete two laps. Reigning world champion Chloe Dygert, two-time world champion Amber Neben, and Pan-American champion Leah Thomas are all strong contenders for top finishes.
Track Cycling:
Track racing dates back to the end of the nineteenth century, with the first world championships held in 1893. Track cyclists typically carry more muscle mass on their bodies than road cyclists, allowing for quicker acceleration during the shorter track events. There are six track cycling events contested at the Olympic Games: the keirin, madison, omnium, team pursuit, individual sprints, and team sprint. The U.S. women won two track cycling medals at the Rio 2016 Games and hope to improve upon that success at Tokyo 2020.
Several promising track cycling athletes and teams look to punch tickets to Tokyo 2020. Having earned a gold medal in the Pan-American Games Lima 2019 as well as a silver at the Olympic Games Rio 2016 – in addition to three world championship titles, in recent years – the women’s team pursuit squad is looking to earn the top step in Tokyo. Individual pursuit world record holder Chloe Dygert is vying for a spot on the team alongside fellow Rio 2016 teammate Jennifer Valente and a pool of promising riders. Jennifer Valente is looking to represent the U.S. in the women’s omnium, a multiple-race event consisting of a scratch race, tempo race, elimination race and points race, in which Valente placed third in the 2019 world championships.
Updated on July 20, 2020. For more information, contact the sport press officer here.
