All three US cyclists who raced in the men's and women's BMX finals won medals Friday morning at the Beijing Olympics.
Mike Day won silver and Donny Robinson took bronze in the men's finals. Jill Kintner of the Seattle area won the bronze medal in the women's finals.
As promised, the BMX finals produced rough and tumble action on the course. Three women went down in separate crashes as they went for broke in the race, and three cyclists hit the dirt in one collision during the men's race.
This is the first Olympics to host BMX, and the sight of big people catching air as they race little bikes on the hilly course provides a lot of excitement.
Women
In the women's race, Anne Caroline Chausson won the gold and Laetitia le Corguille won silver. Both are from France.
The favorite in that race, Shanaze Reade of Great Britain, appeared destined for a silver medal in her pursuit of Chausson, but tried a desparate manuever that led to her crash. Gold or nothing. Kintner maneuvered around her and finished with the bronze.
Competing in the Olympics was a big gamble for Kintner, who grew up racing on the tracks in Burien and graduating from Kirkland's Juanita High School. She had gotten out of BMX and had been competing in mountain biking for six years, only to return to BMX after it became an Olympic sport and USA Cycling recruited her.
Men
Maris Strombergs of Latvia won the gold medal in the men's BMX finals. Day and Robinson followed him across the finish with less than a one-second gap. Two more cyclists who were caught behind the crash finished 2 or 3 seconds later.
Kyle Bennett, the US rider who dislocated his shoulder in the quarterfinals on Tuesday, did not make it out of the semifinals earlier in the day.
He later said the pain from the dislocated shoulder, although popped back into the socket, was too intense to ride hard. The pain was the worst when he cycled down the 3 1/2-story hill at the start of the three heats.
Both expert at BMX, Day and Robinson have quite different builds. Day, 23, from Santa Clarita, California, at 6-3, towers over Robinson, 24, at 5-5. Robinson is from Napa, California.
Men and women on the US BMX team trained at a track in Chula Vista, California, that was built for $1 million to be an exact replica of the Beijing track.
First medals
Full details are available at BMX results at the official Beijing Olympics website.
BMX provided the first medals in cycling for the US since the men's and women's time trials. The US was completely shut out at the track cycling events.
The medals bring the total for the US cycling teams to 1 gold, 1 silver, and 3 bronzes out of 16 events.
TV
Although Olympic organizers scheduled BMX early in the morning in Beijing so it could be viewed live in the US, NBC delayed the broadcast to the West Coast so it can be viewed during primetime.
Luckily for me, I stumbled across the BMX finals on CBUT, the Vancouver affiliate for the Canadian Broadcast Company. CBC shows many Olympic events live, regardless of where they fall on primetime.
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