USA Cycling announced today the process that will select the 2020 Olympic Team for the exciting discipline of BMX Racing, now in its fourth Olympic Games, and the new Olympic discipline of BMX Freestyle. The organization has published the Athlete Selection Criteria for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo for BMX Freestyle and Racing on its website. The USA Cycling Selection Committee set forth to create criteria that would not only select the best athletes, but was objective and easy for athletes and their coaches to understand.
The maximum quota of athletes for the BMX Freestyle discipline is two athletes per gender. Quota slots will be initially filled in order of their ranking in the USA Cycling Olympic BMX Freestyle Rankings as of May 12, 2020. Points towards an athlete’s rankings will be awarded for their best four finishes in UCI Freestyle World Cup events plus the 2019 World Championships between January 1, 2019 and May 12, 2020. Athletes must finish in the top 8 in these events to earn Olympic BMX Freestyle Ranking points.
The maximum quota of athletes for the BMX Racing discipline is three athletes per gender. Like BMX Freestyle, quota slots will be filled per gender by athletes in order of their ranking in the USA Cycling Olympic BMX Racing Rankings as of June 2, 2020. Points towards their rankings will be awarded based on their best ten finishes in the finals (top 8) at UCI BMX Racing World Cup events plus 2019 and 2020 World Championship events with a Maximum of twelve scores counting between January 1, 2019 and June 2, 2020.
“While we’ve attempted to make the Olympic selection more straight forward and easy to understand, that doesn’t mean it’s any easier to make the team,” said Jamie Staff, BMX Performance Director for USA Cycling, “Our goals are always to podium at the Olympics and therefore we’ve set a high standard for athletes to be awarded those spots. Riders will only earn points toward Olympic selection if they make the final at a World Cup or the world Championships in 2019 & 2020. That being said, I have full faith in our riders and believe we will be in good standing come August 2020.”
The full selection criteria for the 2020 Olympic Games can be found here:
BMX Freestyle: https://s3.amazonaws.com/usac-craft-uploads-production/documents/USAC_BMX_Freestyle_SOG_Athlete_Selection_Procedures_Final.pdf
Visit USACycling.org for more information on athletes, events and membership programs. Follow @USACycling across all channels for the latest on Team USA. For more information, please contact Kelly Fox at apalermo@usacycling.org
