BMX, Women

Sixteen riders started the first women’s Olympic BMX event. They rode two rounds of qualifying with the best round for each cyclist seeding the eight riders into the semi-finals. The semis consisted of two heats of three races, with points awarded for each race, and the top four finishers from each heat advancing to the final, which was contested as a single race over the 350 metre course. The favorite was Britain’s Shanaze Reade, the winner of the last two World Championships, and 2007 World Champion in the team sprint with Victoria Pendleton. Other top riders included France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson and American Jill Kintner. Chausson was a mountain bike legend in the downhill, having won nine World Championships in that event, but it was not an Olympic event and she retired after 2005. When the BMX event was added to the Olympic Program, however, she came out of retirement. Kintner had won the Four-Cross World Championship four times, but was competing with sprained knee ligaments. All three made the final, but Reade, trailing on the final turn, attempted a daring maneuver to overtake, but crashed and did not finish. Chausson won easily, with her teammate, Laetitia le Corguille, avoiding the crash that took out Reade, winning the silver medal, and Kintner winning bronze.