Beijing 2008 Olympics

Mountain-bike legend Julien Absalon continued his dominance by successfully defending his Athens Gold medal with an impressive victory. The four-time world champion who rides for Orbea finished ahead of fellow Frenchmen Jean-Christophe Peraud who wins the Silver and Switzerlands Nino Schurter who takes home the Bronze.

MTB medal podium with Jean Christophe Peraud, Julien Absalon and Nino Schurter (Photo credit: Phil Walter/Getty Images)

France’s Julien Absalon wins Gold Medal in Men’s MTB (Photo credit: Xinhua)

World Champion Maris Strombergs of Latvia won the Gold in Men’s BMX just ahead of the American duo of Mike Day and Donny Robinson who won Silver and Bronze respectively. The victory was Latvia’s first gold medal of these Olympic’s. Donny Robinson should be noted for riding an unbelievable hard-charging race, working his way up to a Bronze medal after starting from the near-impossible outside lane.

France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson and Laetitia le Corguille won Gold and Silver respectively in the Women’s BMX with Jill Kintner of the United States winning the Bronze.

As a separate note, given this is BMX’s first session at the Olympics, I feel it necessary to point out Shanaze Reade who had a bad spill in the finals. Shanaze rode like a world champion should, attacked on the absolute edge and took a nasty spill when she clipped Anne-Caroline Chausson tire as they were changing surfaces. For those in classical sports, tactics and playing it safe are often the "smart move" but that has no place in BMX and to me Shanaze’s attacking style is the sport. The nineteen year-old Crew native commented after the race - "Why settle for silver?" only solidifies my opinion of her as a representative of the sports future and embodies its past.

BMX Laetitia le Corguille Anne-Caroline Chausson and Jill Kintner (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

France’s Anne Caroline Chausson on the way to Gold (Photo credit Lu Mingxiang Xinhua)

France’s Anne Caroline Chausson on the way to Gold (Photo credit Lu Mingxiang Xinhua)

This Olympics marks the very well planned-out debut of BMX in the Olympics. I stress the planning aspect not from an organizational structure of the event but the fact that quite sometime ago, I was approached along with world-renowned expert in BMX and my partner in Renegade Training Grant Hansen, about the inclusion of the event in a effort of the Olympics attracting a younger audience. As a competitive ‘boarder and someone who is very active in the BMX/MTB scene, I appreciate the recognition of BMX by the IOC and know the public will fall in love with it, like they have with Boardercross in the Winter Games.

I’ll be posting a full report on BMX at the Games shortly -

Mike Day (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhu)

Kyle Bennett (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

BMX (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

Jared Graves (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

Marc Willers (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

BMX (Photo credit Hou Deqiang Xinhua)

University of Edinburgh graduate Chris Hoy completed a stunning display on the track winning his third Gold medal with his victory in the sprints over teammate Jason Kenny. He is the first Brit to win three Gold medals at the same games since swimmer Henry Taylor in London’s 1908 Games.

British cycling’s performance director Dave Brailsford noted him as a "true gentleman and to me he embodies what a true Olympic athlete is meant to be."

Edinburgh’s Chris Hoy winning Gold (Photo Credit: Getty)

Great Britain cycling continued their dominance on the track as their men’s pursuit team devastated Denmark with a new world record time of three minutes, 53.314 seconds in winning the Gold medal. Great Britain has won five Gold medals on the tracks with hopes for more to come.

Great Britain dominates on the track (Photo credit: Getty)