Update: BMX semifinals and finals delayed until 9 a.m. Friday Beijing time (9 p.m. Thursday EST) due to rainy weather.
The entire US BMX team — 3 men and 1 woman — survived the early qualifying rounds and will compete in the upcoming semifinals for this event being seen at the Summer Olympics for the first time ever.
It was touch and go for one of the riders, Kyle Bennett, at left, who collided with a couple of other riders and dislocated his shoulder in last of 3 heats his group raced. He did not finish that heat, but scored well enough in the first 2 heats to advance. Doctors said he was good to go.
Mike Day won his quarterfinal to qualify for the semifinals, and Donny Robinson, like Bennett, finished in the top 4 of his quarterfinal run to qualify.
The lone woman on the US team, Jill Kintner of Seattle, raced in the seeding phase. She's ranked 7th for the upcoming semifinals.
The BMX event was added to the Summer Olympics schedule recently, and the Beijing Olympics is the first time it will be raced. Because of its popularity in the US, the event is one of only a few that will be broadcast live (or nearly so) on TV here.
It's scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday Friday in Beijing, which is 9 p.m. Wednesday Thursday on the East Coast. NBC has scheduled BMX for the 9 to 11 p.m. slot on Wednesday. [BMX events delayed 24 hours due to rain. NBC scheduling due to postponements is uncertain at this time.] There will be no live video-streaming of BMX, however.
It's good for the US that Bennett will be able to ride, in spite of his shoulder injury. He won the BMX world championships in 2002, 2003 and 2007 and is one of this event's favorites. Day and Robinson also are top-ranked BMXers. All three will face each other in the semifinal heat.
Kintner, who lives in Seattle, retired from BMX racing as a world champion in 2003. She returned in 2007, however, to race BMX in the Olympics.
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