Geeks on Sports: London Olympics 2012 – Cycling – BMX

Event Dates: Wednesday August 8 – Friday August 10

Medal Events: 2

Athletes: 48

 

 

Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith here today to tell you all about Cycling – BMX, a sport where drifter bums can become world champions.

 

There are four cycling events at the 2012 London Olympic Games and BMX is the International Olympic Committee’s attempt to reach the younger male audience (as if girls aging from 13-17 in tight clothing jumping and dancing around wasn’t good enough).  As I ranted about in my Canoe Sprint article the IOC needs to modernize and BMX is an avenue to that.

 

First appearing in the last summer Olympics in Beijing, BMX is a fast-paced action packed sport.  Races consist of heats (much like sprinting and other Athletics’ events) starting with eight competitors and whittling down from there as only the top two cyclists in each heat advance.

 

For an explanation of the rules governing this competition I will now cite the official London 2012 Olympic Games sport page for Cycling – BMX:

 

“Points are awarded according to places, and the top two riders from the first three races in each quarter-final qualify for the semi-finals. The groups (now six riders in each) race twice more, and the top two riders from each group of six transfer to the semi-finals. From here, the semi-finals in both the men’s and women’s events follow a three-run format: the top four riders from each semi-final advance to the final run, when the medals are decided.”

I consider myself to be a person of above-average intelligence and this makes almost no sense to me.  So if you can follow it, then thou art a better person than I.

 

That being said, watching the races will be something akin to NASCAR, mostly it’s interesting because it’s fast and the possibility of injury exists from crashes.

 

Bikes used in this kind of competition are incredibly strong and light-weight to both manage the force of impact from jumps and the necessary speed riders need to achieve in order to come out on top.

At the very least races will be attention-grabbing.

 

To see where to watch this or your other favorite sports, check out NBC’s coverage in your local area.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this preview of the 2012 London Olympics Cycling BMX event.  Continue to check 8DaysAGeek for more previews of Olympic events.

 

 

This is Geeks on Sports previewer Tim Blacksmith signing off.

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