BMX Racing, Newest Olympic Sport, “Uncool” With Clips
In the rush to anoint BMX racing as the next great Olympic “action” sport, the media, the IOC and NBC are overlooking just one thing — pedal clips.
Bicycle clips, like the ones BMX racers will wear during NBC’s prime-time broadcast tonight, aren’t cool, according to a panel of action sports experts who gathered at SportsBusiness Journal’s offices in New York last month.
“Clips took the lifestyle right out of BMX racing,” said Gary Ream, director of Woodward Camp, an action sports camp in Pennsylvania and California. “When we first got involved in BMX racing, it was cool. There was no question about it. Then all of a sudden someone let them start wearing clips.
“When you’re in a cafeteria at Woodward Camp and someone comes in with clips on, they’re the most uncool person in camp. It taints the whole spirit of why most kids do the whole thing.”
Freestyle BMX professional Steve McCann agreed: “Before clips, the sport was way more exciting because you could bump and push and put a leg out. And the person next to you could move and rotate with you. Now you’re scared to touch someone because if you go down you can’t get out of your clips and you’re going to get hurt.”
Olympic BMX racing and X Games BMX freestyle are two very different sports. Racing, which will be featured in prime time tonight on NBC, features riders dropping down a 30-foot ramp on tiny bikes. Racers will be locked into those bikes with the same style clips that Tour de France riders wear.
Freestyle, on the other hand, features riders soaring above a halfpipe or launching off ramps to do tricks by spinning their bikes underneath them or flipping upside down and landing.
Racing is best described as NASCAR on bikes, a contact sport that takes place over 30 seconds, while BMX is described as a lifestyle sport that is done more for leisure than competition.
Interested in learning more? SportsBusiness Journal took a look at the difference between the two styles of BMX in November 2006. http://sportsbusinessjournal.com/article/52552
Getting "Clip comments" from a freestyle BMX rider is like getting a water polo player to comment on the USA Swimteams swim suits. Clips are a standard in BMX racing.. I'm a little disappointed that you didn't get a more relevant perspective for this article.
Posted by: Philip Nelson / August 20, 2008 / 11:41 AM