Entries Tagged 'cycling' ↓

Dr. Jeni McNeal (in mountain bike helmet) at the Big Blue Adventure Race Lake Tahoe.

larger original – flickr

Jeni went over the handle bars recently. No doubt all that gymnastics landing training helped her soften the landing.

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Trick biking is getting pretty nuts.

Daniel Dhers won the Dew Cup in both 2006 and 2007. And X-games gold in 2007 and 2008.

In Portland, on the Dew Tour, responding to a near impossible Quad tail whip by Mike Spinner, Daniel threw down this first run.

Click PLAY or watch Daniel on YouTube.

Daniel’s family lives in Argentina. But he trains at Woodward, Pennsylvania.

related video: BMX Daniel Dhers vs Mike Spinner

Of course another form (less entertaining) of BMX was introduced as an Olympic sport in 2008. Here are the medal winners:

full results

For BMX Racers, Olympic Debut Is a Surreal Experience – NY Times

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by Rick McCharles

Congrats to the FARTs. (Funtastic Adventure Racing Team)

The team completed their biggest race to date — Ocean Blue, California — in 8hrs, 40min. The kayak section was HARSH. The mountain biking, at times, was pushing bikes up a CLIFF.

Morgen, Dave, Andy, Jeni – larger version

Here is Dr. Jeni McNeal, still able to do a handstand after 3 days hard racing and race training.

larger version

See all the photos on flickr.

See video and a photo highlights slideshow.

FART – official team website

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The rider negotiates man-made and natural obstacles without their feet touching the ground. It originated in Spain …

Bike trials – Wikipedia

more videos – Tarty Bikes, UK

Thanks Dave Copeland.

In Orlando, Florida, Cirque du Soleil’s La Nouba includes amazing BMX and bike trial stunts.

I’ve only seen La Nouba once. But am booked again to visit during Level 10 Jr. Olympics and College Bound. It’s an awesome show, one of my favourites.

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Have you heard about this?

The Youth Olympic Games … will feature athletes between the ages of 14 and 18. The idea for such an event was envisioned in 2001 by International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge. On July 6, 2007, IOC members at the 119th IOC session in Guatemala City approved the creation of a youth version of the Olympic Games. …

Each participating country would send at least four athletes. The athlete will be chosen at least 18 months in advance, which suggests that some could be chosen as young as age 12. At least one IOC member criticized the plan …

Several other Olympic events for youth, like the European Youth Olympic Festival held every other year with summer and winter versions, and the Australian Youth Olympic Festival, have proven successful; the Youth Games would most likely be modeled after these. …

Wikipedia

Here’s a cute promo video featuring some youth athletes used as part of the successful Singapore bid.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Less cute, but far more informative is this Singapore 2010 Concept Video (3min) also used as part of the bid. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I love Singapore. And am confident they will be even better hosts for a big Games than Beijing in 2008.

6th World Congress on Biomechanics

(via Kat on Chalk Bucket)

Now …

Are youth Olympics a good idea?

The whole concept flies against some of the things said by FIG President Bruno Grandi over the past year.

Leave a comment if you have an opinion.

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Recall that organizers of the 2007 Pan American Games banned blogging during the event:

To placate TV, athletes and coaches will not be allowed to blog from the Games. No MySpace. No Facebook. No YouTube. No Flickr.

loco – no blogging from Pan Am Games Rio

That stupid decision was so unenforceable that when I later (on Facebook) asked athletes about the regulations, they told me they had never even been informed of the ban.

The International Olympic Committee, by comparison, has taken, for them, a surprisingly enlightened position. Even I can live with these regulations:

GENEVA — Let the blogging begin.

The IOC has given athletes the right to blog at the Beijing Games this summer, a first for the Olympics, as long as they follow the many rules it set to protect copyright agreements, confidential information and security.

Blogging is a “legitimate form of personal expression,” the International Olympic Committee said.

The IOC said blogs by athletes “should take the form of a diary or journal” and should not contain any interviews with other competitors at the games. They also should not write about other athletes.

“It is required that, when accredited persons at the games post any Olympic content, it be confined solely to their own personal Olympic-related experience,” the IOC said.

The debate over blogging has been a difficult one for the IOC, which has been concerned that the online journals might infringe on copyright agreements or release confidential information during the Aug. 8-24 Beijing Olympics.

Bloggers are prevented from posting audio clips or videos of “any Olympic events, including sporting action, opening, closing and medal ceremonies or other activities which occur within any zone which requires an Olympic identity and accreditation card [or ticket] for entry.”

Still pictures are allowed as long as they do not show Olympic events. …

Athletes allowed to blog from Beijing, with restrictions – ESPN

More details after the link.

This will be the best Olympics ever for those of us who like the personal perspective delivered by athletes and coaches themselves.

(via Straight to the Bar)

I wonder what the Chinese organizers think of this decision. China bans many of the popular blogging sites. Olympians may need to email their photos and text out of the country to be uploaded by friends and family.

Reporters Without Borders

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I’ve tried the “trampoline bike” at Woodward West Action Sports Camp.

Fun. But dangerous. (If you land on top of the bike on the trampoline.)

This looks a better, safer version:

photo by Bryce Shaw

Click PLAY or watch the video on YouTube.

More video and details on Jumpclub.

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First time ever, Woodward West in California is offering a WINTER CAMP for skateboarding, BMX, in-line and mountain biking. Between Christmas and New Years.

Camp Woodward

Gymnasts can go off-season too, at a great price. Contact the camp for details.

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Aaron Fotheringham (born 1991) from Las Vegas, Nevada is a wheelchair athlete, or ‘wheelchair skateboarder’ who performs tricks adapted from skateboarding and BMX.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

I understand and respect Aaron’s decision to do acrobatics in a chair much better after having climbed White Mountain with 4WheelBob this past summer. His was the first ascent of California’s 3rd highest mountain in a wheelchair.

Still, I don’t want Aaron or other athletes getting hurt.

They must get proper coaching and training facilities. Though the video does not show it, Aaron learned the somersault in the foam pit at Woodward West camp.

What about that Backflip at Woodward?

“The entire week was awesome. The best week of my life!

interview with Aaron

Aaron calls this ‘hardcore sitting’. He is famed for being the first person to successfully perform a back flip in a wheelchair at the age of 14. He performs other tricks in his wheelchair including a 180 degree ‘aerial’. He plans to fuse the back flip with the 180 aerial into what is known as a ‘flair’.

Aaron has Spina Bifida; he has had a wheelchair since the age of three and although he used crutches early on, he has been in a wheelchair fulltime since the age of eight. He would watch his brother riding his BMX at the skate park and one day his brother told him that he should try riding his chair in the park. Aaron later noted that “I did, and I was hooked”.

Aaron got a new wheelchair, a Colours In Motion’s Boing!” which was both lightweight and featured four wheel suspension. This enabled him to perform the same sorts of tricks that skateboarders and BMXers can do as the suspension cushioned his landings. …

Aaron Fotheringham – Wikipedia

(via THE GOAT)

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The trend towards so-called extreme sports continues.

At Woodward West Camp, Mike Jacki told me he was very optimistic that skateboard will be added for the 2012 Olympics. The announcement should come October 2007. If anybody knows, it’s Mike Jacki.

BMX is already in for Beijing 2008. (For 2012 BMX Vert may be added in the same venue as Skateboard. And possibly other BMX events.)

Skateboarding is almost certain to make its Olympic debut at the London Games.

Leaders of the Olympic movement are determined to help the sport qualify for the 2012 event in an attempt to broaden the Games’ appeal to younger people.
…

The chances of skateboarding being included in the Games roster were boosted by the successful introduction of another “youth” sport. Snowboarding made its debut at last year’s Winter Olympics in Turin and provided some of the Games’ most memorable moments and, crucially for the IOC, attracted encouraging TV ratings among 20- to 35-year-olds.

The drive towards a younger audience will continue at the Beijing Games next year with the debut of BMX biking.

This was introduced to the Games by the International Cycling Union, which is on the verge of adopting skateboarding as it is a “wheelbased”-sport. …

Its popularity has grown rapidly and there are now around 13 million devotees worldwide, including 600,000 in Britain. The US continues to dominate the sport and the UK lags behind France and Scandinavian countries, where skateboarding forms part of the school curriculum. …

Skateboarding would be the envy of numerous other sports vying for Olympics status, which can provide a huge boost to grassroots participation and revenues.

Two years ago, rugby and golf both failed in their attempts to become part of the 2012 event. At the same time, the IOC cut baseball and softball from the roster.

The event most likely to be included in London is vert skating, which originated when skateboarders used disused swimming pools. Participants are awarded points for tricks and style.

Skateboarding to make Olympic debut in 2012 | News | This is London

Though Olympic skateboarding looks like a sure thing, the biggest roadblock left are those in skateboarding who feel Olympic inclusion will ruin the sport.

Buzzy Sullivan, Woodward Skate Director, had mixed feelings. He took up skateboard when it was an activity for “outsiders” who did not want to do tradtional competitive sports. Yet finds in 2007 that skateboard is already an accepted mainstream activity. In fact, where he lives, the greatest growth in the sport has come from girls taking up skateboard.

Mark J. Terrill / AP file

Shaun White catches air during skateboard vert practice for X Games Twelve. White is an Olympic medalist in snowboarding and could double up in Olympics if skateboarding is added to the Games.

Rad! Skateboarding could be an Olympic sport

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Here at Woodward West in California I’m spending half my time in the awesome gymnastics facility, half the time studying Action Sports (skating, skateboard, cycling).

This article caught my eye:

At the young age of 16, Alise Post is already an accomplished gymnast as well as a professional BMX rider. She is spending her time this summer split between the track and the gym.

Post started riding in BMX races when she was just 6 years old.

“It’s really an addicting sport. Once you start, you don’t want to stop,” she said. “My brother actually got me involved with it. He started and he wanted me to not be a little wussy girl.”

Ten years down the road, and she’s now considered one of the top professional riders in her sport.

“I still don’t really realize it, that I’m a pro at something, because I’ve always just done it for fun and that’s just what it it. I just do it because I love it,” she said.

Post turned pro last year and was named “rookie of the year” by the American Bicycle Association. Because there really is no off-season in BMX racing, she’s on the road competing a couple of weekends a month nearly year round.

“I think that’s part of the reason I like doing it so much, to tell you the truth,” she said. “I get to travel all over and meet people all over the world.”

Post’s sports world isn’t confined to just the track — she’s also a standout in the gym. As a sophomore this spring she repeated as Minnesota’s gymnastics Double A vault champion.

Post placed fourth in the all-round competition, helping her St. Cloud Tech team to a second-place team finish. She said the state experience was phenomenal.

“It seriously feels like you’re in the Olympics. It feels so cool because in the auditorium that we competed in, you’re down on the ground, everyone’s raised up above you, there’s tons of people there,” she said. “Everything about it just feels so professional.”

The two sports feed off one another, according to one of her assistant gymnastics coaches.

“Her BMX is an asset to her gymnastics,” said Colleen Stark-Hawes, assistant gymnastics coach at St. Cloud Tech. “She has such incredible air sense. She’s almost like a cat, where she really understands air and how to land. And so, if anything, we hope that her gymnastics doesn’t injure her for BMX.”

Back on her home track at Pineview Park in St. Cloud, Post knows eventually she’ll have to pick between her favorite sports, and it won’t be easy.

“I love them all at the same level,” she said, before admitting, “I think racing will take me the furthest.”

wcco.com – 16-Year-Old An Accomplished Gymnast, BMX Racer

(via Gym Chat)

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My favourite channel subscription on YouTube is saltocafe which has over 80 videos, many quite unique.

That’s Coach Don at Woodward West Gymnastics and Action Sports Camp. (He’s looking GREAT for his age, by the way.)

As an example, check out this monster forward somersault on a trick bike.

Just a few years ago “fronts” on a bike were considered far more difficult than backward flips. Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

saltocafe – YouTube

I will be at Woodward July 22-25th. Looking forward to Dodgeball!

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I was mentioned in the Camp newsletter. How about that.

Download the entire VAULT Newsletter in PDF format on the Woodward West website.

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