How the family farm helped BMX racer Niek Kimmann win Olympic gold
The Dutch Olympic champion created a unique homemade track to give him an extra edge toward achieving his childhood goal.
The innocuous-looking farm building rising out of the flat landscape surrounding the Dutch village of Lutten hides quite the secret.
The warehouse has played an instrumental part in the Netherlands claiming a first ever Olympic gold in BMX Racing.
Reigning men's Olympic champion, Niek Kimmann, trained here on a self-made indoor track created alongside brother and fellow BMXer Justin, in a building on the family farm.
Using agricultural machinery such as tractors and heavy rollers – which stayed put to provide an unusual backdrop to the undulating, rolling switchback track akin to those found on the professional circuit – the pair painstakingly crafted packed down sand and grit, surrounded by hay-bale crash barriers.
The track, which provided a winter training retreat, came to its natural end with great community-driven fanfare, in December 2022.
"After six years of having this Indoor BMX Track at my dad's company," posted Kimmann, "it was time for one more final 'No-Chain Race', before we would take the track down."
The 2022 Kimmann Indoor No Chain Race hosted kids of all ages from the surrounding area, alongside international riders such as Germany's Olympic hopeful Philip Schaub, who descended on the small village for one last hoorah alongside the Olympic champion.
Love at first sight for Niek Kimmann and his BMX
Kimmann fell in love with BMX aged seven after attending a classmate's training session.
By 15, he'd joined the Dutch National Team at the Olympic Training Center Papendal in Arnhem, 100km away from his close-knit home life.
He would train in the mornings, go to school, then train again after school, but the hard work paid off.
Two years later, in 2014, Kimmann was double junior world champion – in BMX Racing and time trial.
Later that year, the Dutchman secured Youth Olympic Games bronze in Nanjing, People's Republic of China in the men's team event, something he told Olympics.com ahead of Tokyo 2020 that he still sees as "one of the best experiences of my life".
“I was surprised at how big it was. It was such a great experience, especially because we were still junior, and everything was so new."
The following year, Kimmann was eligible for the senior competitions, but how would he fare?
Not bad, as it happens.
Seamless step from junior to senior success
Kimmann won the first World Cup of the 2015 season, in Rotorua, New Zealand, the same track on which he'll compete in the first two World Cups of the shortened 2024 Olympic series, on 10 and 11 February.
Later in 2015, the Dutchman became the first person to become world champion in a debut season as a senior athlete, winning the men's race at the UCI BMX World Championships in Zolder, Belgium.
It made him one of the favourites for the following year's Olympic title at Rio 2016.
However, a hefty fall in the quarter finals put him out of the running, as it did for Liam Phillips in the first quarter final, something the pair no doubt commiserate over as the Brit is currently Kimmann's coach.
The same year, the indoor farm track came to fruition.
Homemade BMX track does its job
"Riders ready. Watch the gate."
The automated voice on the start trap alerts the rider to the explosive beginning of BMX racing at the barn track.
The set up was not an enlarged sandcastle but a full-on proper facility, even including bleachers for onlookers, painted on track guides, and a full-on DJ booth. The last bit for the party afterwards; every bit as important as the racing itself in the BMX racing community, particularly in December for the track's last showing.
The brothers had spent their childhood lugging spades and wheelbarrows around, creating ramps and bumps to ride on, in the spacious surrounds of the farm.
The barn track was just a bigger version.
Training on it helped Kimmann win Olympic gold in Japan – despite fracturing his knee in an incident with an official in training.
Paris 2024 BMX Racing title defence
Now the three-time world champion is eyeing the defence of his title at Paris 2024.
Netherlands have not yet qualified a quota spot in men's BMX racing, but World Cup points will be vital when it comes to qualification for the XXXIII Olympiad.
Results count towards the UCI Olympic Qualification Ranking that will help define the National Olympic Committee's that obtain quotas for the Games.
The qualification period is between 1 August 2022 and 2 June 2024, with the six-race series in 2024 crowning the overall champions after the final races of the season in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the USA at the end of April.
The World Championships follow in Rock Hill, USA in May followed by the Olympic Games in Paris with BMX racing taking place 1 and 2 August.
Should Kimmann again claim top spot, he'll no doubt look back with fondness at the barn in which he spent many a happy hour honing his craft, until the tractors moved in, removing the track for the final time, it's purpose well and truly having been served.