How Jude Jones went from rekinding his love for BMX on a lads' holiday to beating the Olympic silver medallist
The Briton felt burnt out by BMX Freestyle in 2022, but a trip with his friends to Greece helped rekindle his love for the sport – and helped him beat top names including Tokyo 2020 silver medallist Daniel Dhers at the 2023 Madrid Urban Sports contest.
Cycling BMX Freestyle
"It kind of got to the point where, like, I just ruled out BMX – I was like 'I'm not going to ride again.'"
Jude Jones never saw himself here. The British BMX freestyle rider is sitting down with Olympics.com in Shanghai, People's Republic of China, for an interview during the Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 as he attempts to obtain a Paris 2024 quota.
And yet just two years ago, he was completely done with the sport. Jones was burnt out and wanted to go back into the construction business in which he was working before he began trying to make a career out of BMX riding.
"I was just going to focus on building and kind of go back to a normal life. I think I just lost drive," he remembers.
How Jude Jones fell back in love with BMX
The spark that helped the 22-year-old rediscover his love for the sport came from the most unlikely of places: a lads' holiday with his best friends to the Greek island of Zakynthos, or Zante.
"I just looked around at all the other people, I was in a club and I just [felt] like, this is just not me. I looked at everyone else, I used to have something that separated me from everyone else, which is BMX, and I've lost that completely," he says of the Eureka moment.
"So I got home and I was just ready to just go all in. I was like, this is it, it's all or nothing. I'm always just so thankful for getting back on the bike."
Jones trained harder than ever, and it came to fruition at the Madrid Urban Sports contest in 2023, where in the middle of the competition, Jones had a run held back for a weather interruption. He shrugged it off to post the best score, beating even Olympic silver medallist Daniel Dhers, who was fifth.
"It was a big mental test being out there with lots of things against you," he recalls. "It was rain and the next minute like 38 degrees and sun in this big, massive competition.
"I think it just taught me that I was like more confident and more ready for anything that I thought. So like if I was like, if I can win here, like against all of this, like pressure and all of these things that don't make it ideal, like I'm ready for anything."
Going from bricklaying to BMX: Jude Jones' path to elite sport
Jones was never a studious kid, and BMX was his escape. "I was never very good at school. So to go out there and just like kind of have my own way of expressing myself was just incredible."
But thoughts of making it pro were not really at the forefront of the Briton's mind. After leaving school, the Market Harborough native joined his father in construction, working as a bricklayer. Put to him that building was too rigid for someone who wanted freedom, Jones disagreed.
"I really enjoyed it, and I actually think it is quite free. I worked with my dad, so we just used to go out together, work together and do jobs. I still look back sometimes and I'm like, oh, that was some good times.
"Finishing on a summer's day at three o'clock, going to the skate park and riding. I also think if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't be here, because working for my dad he always understood if I had to go to a contest or anything like that."
And, surprisingly, he says there are transferable skills from bricklaying and construction to BMX freestyle.
"It's problem solving and I think that relates to BMX quite a lot," he claims. "You might turn up at a job and it's like, we've got these drawings but now nothing matches to the drawing. Same as seeing a course drawing and it isn't the same as the actual course itself.
"You've got to solve problems in the construction industry and you've got the solve problems in BMX. Everything's kind of related in that way. I love it."
Jude Jones' BMX style
Just as he did in school for not being the most bookish, Jones stands out from the crowd on his bike too – he rides goofy, with his right foot leading, whereas the majority of riders ride 'regular', with their left foot in front.
"From the moment you drop in there you're already different from most riders, I do think that helps. I used to always kind of resent it a bit and be like, oh God, I wish I could ride like the others. But now it's like, make my own style. It's nice.
"You can still do like high performance tricks with the goofy style that separates you from the other riders. And I think like being different on a course when there's quite a few riders that like in the competition is a massive thing."
But he's shut the doubters out and proven that he can indeed mix with the best.
"I've always liked to do things my way and just and that definitely relates to BMX too. I've been told like quite a few times in the past 'That's not going to work, you can't do that.'
"That's my motivation now to show you I'll do it. So yeah, I think that definitely kind of describes me as a person."
The Olympic Qualifier Series 2024 in Shanghai is available to stream live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for mobile devices.
As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective teams at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at Paris 2024 depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation. Click here to view the qualification system for each sport.