BeijingBMX.com Olympic BMX Photo BlogIt's BMX Photo Buffet at BeijingBMX.com!
Photos galore with some choice observatons on
what was goin' on with them in Beijing!
It's Team Latvia, chillin' on the Start Hill during the afternoon practice on Tuesday. From left, it's UCI World Champ and eventual Olympic BMX Gold Medallist, Maris Strombergs, 'Senior Member' Ivo Lakucs and at right, all round BMX tough guy, Arturs Matisons. All from the little country of Latvia and ALL, Hard Core BMXers!
Tuesday, there were two rounds of practice, one in the morning when it was "Cool", and one in the afternoon when it was HOT! Almost EVERYONE else went back to their hotels and took the afternoon off but when 2PM came and it was time to take some practice gates and ride the track, guess who showed up? Yup! Team Latvia.
The other guys who were doing practice were the last three riders selected to the race, and you might say they "NEEDED" the practice, but these guys? They are some of the TOUGHEST hombres in BMX, what were they doing there, with SO MUCH on the line?
When we asked Arturs Matisons, he said, "we just like to ride." These guys are all about the BMX. They were three of the "Favorites" to make the BMX Olympic Finals, and here they were, sweatin' it out in the HOT Chinese sunshine, havin' fun working out the details of their race strategy. Pretty amazing when you get right down to it. |
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Maris
Strombergs,
Gold Medal BMX, lining up for The Snap!
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Arturs Matisons, gettin' it on out of the Olympic Gate. AWESOME! |
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Liam Phillips (Left) joins The Latvians in a little "Air Time" on the First Straight at the BMX Olympic Event. Liam had a good time at the race. He went out early, but say that He Will Be Back! Maybe if you get a taste for something you want more of it. |
Donny Robinson (Left) and Kyle Bennett, workin' their magic on the Olympic BMX Berm Jump. Donny went on to win the Bronze Medal and Kyle "Just Barely" missed out on the BMX Olympic Final, by ONE point, after seperating his shoulder two days earlier! |
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Wanna check out the guys who made the Olympics tick? In the white shirt at left, it's Johan Lindstrom, head of the UCI BMX department in Aigle, Switzerland, he's got the Master Plan.
To his left is Mats Notland. Matti is responsible for the nitty gritty details at the UCI World Wide events.
In the red shirt at left is Tom Ritz, the man behind the tracks. Tom builds all of the UCI Supercross race tracks and also ones that countries ask the UCI to build for them as they ramp up their BMX programs.
Pretty cool bunch, these guys put on some AWESOME races! |
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Italian Stallion, Manuel De Vecchi, made the team at the Olympics.
He's a GREAT racer and regularly participates in that Super Tough Euro BMX Circuit, where almost everyone is fast and the comp it tough tough tough! |
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He's the only rider in the Olympics with only ONE name. Kamakazi was lookin' pretty good at the Games, but he didn't make it out of his Semi's.
According to Kama, "There'll be at least one more effort in his bag of tricks. 2012! |
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