BMX

So after three days, BMX completed its debut at the Olympic Games. There was a rain delay yesterday, which postponed the finals to this morning. The weather was baking hot. The mixed zone was the most crowded yet; I clung to an umbrella post in a pile of backpacks, tripods, and BBC workers and tried to think of a way to describe the scene on my blog. Basically, the mixed zone was about five feet wide. There was a wall at least two backpacks deep on one side with tripods sprinkled here and there. On the other side, facing where the athletes wander through, a crowd of at least one to three journalists deep at any given time struggled to flag cyclists over after events. At one point, a reporter got pushed over accidently into my umbrella, and I had to help catch her. While listening in on the BBC interview Shanaze Reade, a British BMX cyclist predicted to take gold but crashed in the final, I got trapped in between a cameraman and his equipment. Luckily, I had already gotten several quotes.

Today, many of the track cyclists were wandering around the media and team area. Theo Bos, Chris Hoy, Jamie Staff, Guo Shuang, Victoria Pendleton, Kevin Sireau, and many others I may have forgotten about or not seen. I heard a rumor that several players from the American basketball team may have been in attendance. 

But let's talk BMX. Hardcore, much? Crashes galore, if that's your bag. The first day there was a crash involving Kyle Bennett, from the USA, and Liam Phillips, from Great Britain. Both of the riders dislocated their shoulders, and had them immediately popped back in before leaving the field of play. I took notes on the interview with Phillips when he spoke with the BBC. He was holding his shoulder in, but appeared perfectly normal. He said: "This has been an amazing experience, but it would have been nice to race tomorrow (talking about the finals). You can't race with a dislocated shoulder, but it's back in now (talking nonchalantly about his freshly separated-then-popped-back-in shoulder)." Kyle Bennett went on to ride in the finals, however. I can't imagine what that feels like. 

Although I knew of BMX before the Olympics, I never followed it very closely, so I was surprised by the number of crashes. Apparently, it doesn't always involve touching other riders, but rather not being able to control the sheer force and velocity. It was intense.

Unfortunately, America did not win gold. A Latvian rider got gold in the men's, with Mike Day from the U.S. getting silver and Donny Robinson receiving bronze. Two French riders took gold and silver in the women's, with American Jill Kintner earning bronze. 

Here's some pictures of the venue and other competition-related things. I stole these from one of my ONS supervisors Amy:

The course.

These stylish bibs can go outdoors as well! The blue army sitting below the media area during time trial qualification runs.

The women racing. In the words of Donny Robinson: "Rad."

Shanaze Reade walking through the notorious broadcast mixed zone. I was stationed directly behind the camera(s) and the blonde head on the left.

The women's medal ceremony.

American bronze medalist Jill Kintner before the press conference. She walked in, set her roses and helmet by her microphone, plopped down in the audience next to an acquaintance from the media (I presumed), and kicked back for a few minutes. I haven't seen other athletes do anything like this. Leave it to an American. It was cool.

During the press conference.

I was disappointed that I haven't seen an American gold medal ceremony yet, but I'm proud we medaled three times in only two events. I hope BMX achieves what it set out to do in the Olympics. 

Speaking of disappointing lack of gold medal ceremonies, I attended the softball final last night. U.S.A. versus Japan, the final Olympic softball game ever, at least for a while. We lost. We've never lost. I was moderately upset. Let's not talk about it for now. 

Tomorrow is the final day of cycling competition. Because BMX was delayed a day, there is a marathon mountain biking day: men's race in the morning, women's race in the afternoon. The races should take around two hours. 

And then it's over?

Sad.