BMX Freestyle Park World Championships a final shot at Olympic qualification
Making its debut at this year’s showpiece, BMX Freestyle Park will see nine male and nine female riders go in search of a piece of history as the discipline’s first-ever Olympic champions.
Cycling BMX Freestyle
The UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Championships held in Montpellier, France between 4 and 7 June will serve as the final qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (in 2021).
The BMX Freestyle Park World Championships will be a race to the line as nations battle it out for the top spot on the rankings with the qualification period officially ending on 7 June.
Riders will have the dangling carrot of securing two quotas should their country finish atop the rankings at the end of the qualification window and once all the points have been tallied.
Australia, tied on points with the United States, will be sending a strong contingent in the men’s event in an effort to secure the top spot. The team will be led by reigning world champion Brandon Loupos and Logan Martin, who won the global title in 2017. The duo claimed a 1-2 podium finish at the 2019 UCI BMX Freestyle World Championships in Chengdu, China.
The United States’ Nick Bruce, who rounded off the podium there, will lead his country’s charge along with Justin Dowell, and Daniel Sandoval.
Among the contenders for top honours in France and Tokyo later this year is Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers. The five-time X Games gold medallist and Panams champ Dhers leads the global rankings for 2021 and would be looking to add the world title and in the process lay down a marker for Tokyo 2020.
Japanese sensation Nakamura Rim’s gold-medal ambitions is back on track after breaking his heel towards the end of last year. Rim, who was the 2019 overall World Cup winner, will be the host country’s representative in the men's BMX freestyle event.
Teen supreme
In the women’s competition, America’s two-time world champion Hannah Roberts will be aiming for her third global title to further affirm her status as the pre-Tokyo favourite. The 19-year-old could be making history at the Games should she make it to the top step – the first woman in her teens to win an Olympic cycling title.
The US will again be hunting in a pack with 2018 world champion Perris Benegas and world silver medallist Angie Marino joining her in the charge for the podium.
World silver medallist Macarena Perez of Chile, Youth Olympic mixed team gold medallist Lara Lessmann of Germany and Great Britain’s world bronze medallist Charlotte Worthington are also among the contenders.