To make it to the BMX freestyle Park program at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris is not an easy task. Only 12 Men and 12 Women will be able to participate on the Olympic stage which will be built up at the Place de La Concorde in the summer of 2024. The Olympic Qualifying process has been announced and the points chase for quota places for Continental Championships and World Championships has started already. The more points the top two riders of a nation gather, the more riders (of that nation) will be able to participate at the bigger events in 2023/2024. Time has started for the top two riders to move their country up in the nation ranking. Throwing C1 events is a way for federations to offer their local riders an event that they can attend without having to travel far. At the BMX Open in Rotterdam on 4 September the Dutch Park riders showed up as well as a big delegation from Hungary, a German, and a rider from Slovakia.
The level of riding these days is insane. Double whips, barspin backflips, and truckdrivers have almost become 'filler tricks'. It's key to stand out from the pack by going higher, doing transfers no one else is doing, bring tricks that nobody else can do and pack as many of them in a 60 second run without making any mistakes using the entire course. Place #11 could have won an event only a few years ago but the level keeps going up making it hard for the riders to stay on top of things. At the end of the day it was Tom van den Bogaard (NED) who grabbed the 200 UCI ranking points at Skateland in front of #2 Zoltan Ujvary (HUN) and #3, youngster Tom Clemens (GER).
It is time to become active and throw C1 events in your region. Riders interested in making it to Paris in 2024 will need to chase enough of them to get to the top. The structure is in place. The Olympic Qualifying process is known. Start chasing those points.
BdJ
Photos by: Aaron Zwaal
After doing a BMX 'zine for ten years (1987 - 1996) FATBMX made it on the internet. The year was 1998. Here to stay.