Olympic champion Logan Martin exits, but feeling optimistic about Paris 2024 - especially its location
USA's Marcus Christopher topped the qualification at the Olympic Qualifier Series to the loud cheers and umbrella stomping of his coach Ryan Nyquist, while Daniel Dhers suffered a second heartbreak of the day.
Tokyo 2020 champion Logan Martin is glad the next Olympic Games are not taking place in Budapest.
Both of his career’s worst results, when the Australian BMX rider did not advance to the final, came in the Hungarian capital. The second of these at the Olympic Qualifier Series (OQS) on Friday, 21 June where he finished 17th in the men’s BMX Freestyle Park qualification.
Martin scored 69.92 in his first run after a fall in the final seconds. He made another mistake on the same course feature in the second run, scoring 72.16 points.
"Definitely bummed," the Olympic champion said after. "It's definitely not what I planned to do.
"I knew what I did wrong. I knew what I needed to do. I was doing it perfect in practice. It was feeling great in practice. It was just a slip up in my first run. I didn't even think like, 'Oh, what if that happens again?' I was just thinking, 'Land good the trick before it so I can pop back properly'," he continued. "I just didn't do it properly. I did the same thing two times but I wasn't like dwelling on that first run. I was trying to refocus, reset through the next run. I knew I still could have made the final if I pulled a good second run."
After hitting the same problem spot in the second run, Martin placed five spots below the cut-off for the final.
He earned 45 points fom his second place at the Olympic Qualifier Series stage in Shanghai. However, the combination of those points with the 24 he will take from Budapest will not be enough to secure him an Olympic quota via the OQS*. Instead, the Australian said he is relying on the continental quota for Oceania to go to Paris 2024 and is feeling optimistic about defending his title there.
"It's been a good lead in the last 18 months. I had some great results. This one unfortunately wasn't," Martin said. "It's never nice, the one right before the Olympics but I'll go home, I'll prepare well, and I'll go into the Olympics confident."
Fortunately for him, those Olympics will not be taking place in the host city of the Olympic Qualifier Series.
"Definitely stoked it's not in Budapest," he said with a laugh. "It's crazy because that's actually one of my favourite places to visit. It's my third time here. I probably just enjoy the city, too much and don't focus as much."
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Click here to see the official qualification system for each sport.
Marcus Christopher sets the bar and gets coach celebrating
USA’s Marcus Christopher ruled the tough competition field in Budapest. His first run scored an all-day high of 91.00 points, which helped boost him to the top of the standings in the qualifiers. In Saturday's final all athletes begin with a clean slate.
Despite being the only BMX rider to score above 90 so far, Christopher was humble about his result.
"I just know what I was supposed to do and what actually happened, so I'm a little hard on myself in that way," he said. "I landed low where I shouldn't have and I had to switch up the next trick after that. So the other people watching might not know, but I knew. But with the scores, I'm happy with the result."
Christopher's coach, on the other hand, was in much more of a celebration mood. Standing on the sidelines of the competition course with a large stars-and-stripes umbrella, the four-time X Games champion Ryan Nyquist banged the umbrella against the floor every time Christopher or another USA rider landed a trick, appearing completely unbothered by a leg cast that reached high above his knee.
"He won't tell us how he did it," Christopher said to which Nyquist - now holding the same colourful umbrella above his athlete - quickly replied: "Dancing".
Asked whether they would celebrate today’s result with a dance, the two men diverged vastly in their answers.
"Definitely not," Christopher said. "Just him. He's a big dancer, and I'm not."
Daniel Dhers, Nick Bruce out
While Christopher and Justin Dowell advanced to the final in the Top 5, their teammate Nick Bruce finished below the cutline. The USA rider fell in the first run and although he was able to walk off the field to supportive cheers from the crowd, he then decided not to continue with the competition.
France’s Kevin Fabregue was in a more worrying state after his first run. He crashed in the first seconds and was taken off the field to receive medical help.
Venezuela’s Daniel Dhers, a legendary BMX rider and the coach behind the success of the Chinese women’s team, also missed the final, finishing just one spot below the cut-off. It was his second disappointment of the day after watching student Sun Sibei drop out of the women's competition in the morning.
The early exists of these top riders came as a shock to Brazil's Gustavo Oliveira - best known as "Bala Loca" (Crazy Bullet) - who himself had two stellar runs to finish second in the qualification.
"I'm really very surprised about the other people here in the qualification that lost," he said. "It's something unprecedented and surprising. It's a bit sad for the athletes, but in sports, that happens. The competition is sometimes not your best day."
OQS Budapest BMX Freestyle Park men's qualification - Results
- Marcus Christopher (USA) – 89.04 Q
- Gustavo Oliveira (BRA) – 87.97 Q
- Anthony Jeanjean (FRA) – 86.59 Q
- Justin Dowell (USA) – 84.54 Q
- Keiran Reilly (GBR) – 84.21 Q
- Jose Torres Gil (ARG) – 84.12 Q
- Nakamura Rim (JPN) – 83.46 Q
- Jude Jones (GBR) – 83.32 Q
- Marin Rantes (CRO) – 83.09 Q
- Dylan Hessey (GBR) – 82.01 Q
- Ernests Zebolds (LAT) – 81.19 Q
- Zoltan Kempf (HUN) – 79.65 Q
How to watch all the Olympic Qualifier Series action from Budapest
The action from Budapest will be streamed live, for free, and without subscription to a worldwide audience on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com and the official Olympics app for Paris 2024.
You can also catch up on the latest news, features, reports and updates from the ground with daily articles on Olympics.com.