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On the dirt track at Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, there was already bedlam. Sylvain Andre raised his BMX high above his head and threw it onto the ground as if it had betrayed him. Romain Mahieu ripped off his helmet and chucked it into the crowd without a care. Joris Daudet had won the gold, but the historic one-two-three for the hosts were celebrating as one underneath a French flag. Everywhere you looked, the party had started, with horns blaring and bass thumping. Moments earlier, Emmanuel Macron arrived at the finish line to a further roar of disbelief. The president? Here?
In that moment the possibilities a simple BMX race could throw up across just 30 seconds appeared dizzying. Then, at the top of the ramp, all turned silent as Beth Shriever looked down at the starting straight that would decide her fate.
The 25-year-old knew that the defence of her Olympic title would be decided within seconds, hinging on whether she could hit the first turn in front to take the racing line. Shriever had won all three races in qualifying and all three in her semi-final to fight for gold, but so had Australia’s Saya Sakakibara, racing in the other heats. There were only hundreds of a second between their best times and it appeared too close to call. But this is BMX racing, the sport where the only guarantee is there are never any guarantees.
From standing as favourite for gold, Shriever finished last in her final, paying the price for a slow start as Sakakibara cruised to gold. “The race was done,” she said, as she was beaten out of the gate and crowded out by the middle pack.
Around an hour earlier, Shriever had watched as her Great Britain team-mate Kye Whyte had crashed from his semi-final and was stretchered off the course, his Olympic dream over. Between them, Shriever and Whyte had provided one of the moments of the last Olympics three years ago when she won her gold and he claimed his silver within the space of 11 minutes in Tokyo. From that golden morning, Paris turned into a nightmare evening for Team GB.
BMX is wildly unpredictable but riders learn that it is as much of a blessing as a curse; it can make races thrillingly entertaining and defeats feel frustratingly cruel. “One little mistake cost me,” Shriever said.
It takes just under 40 seconds to win gold in the final, which is a straight shootout, but it can only take 0.4s seconds to lose it. The start is particularly decisive as riders fly out of the gate at the top of the towering ramp. Hitting the first jump in the top two or three places and avoiding getting stuck in the pack behind can be the difference.
Once on the straights, riders fly between jumps standing upright up the pedals, legs extended, before tucking their knees into their chest to maintain their speed dropping into the other side. The steep, banking corners require the perfect racing line. If you can reach the first corner in the lead, there’s not a lot of room to overtake on the short, twisting course. If you don’t, there’s not a lot of time to recover.
It had been a special day already for Team GB, with five medals and three golds. Shriever and Whyte had already combined to produce a historic Olympics story for Team GB but came into the semi-finals carrying with hope rather than expectation. Shriever made it to Paris despite breaking her collarbone in a crash just four months ago but had her preparation time severely impacted by injury. Whyte carried a sore back into the Olympics and struggled through his quarter-finals on Thursday, unable to get the power he had required to push down the ramp and fly into the opening jump.
That would prove crucial. In his second heat, Whyte reacted slowly out of the gate and was behind as he dropped onto the track following the first jump. It was immediately clear that something was wrong and Whyte wobbled, veering off course and going down hard onto the dirt. He was stretchered off before British Cycling confirmed he had suffered no significant injuries, only the pain of another Olympic medal slipping away so quickly.
The atmosphere was already electric before the final, especially for the French riders. The crowd stamped their feet as World No 1 Daudet, Mahieu and Andre qualified first, second and third. When they converted it into gold, silver and bronze in front of Macron the place almost exploded. Daudet, Mahieu and Andre jumped off their bikes and fell into an embrace on the finish line.
“That was history on its own, to be a part of that and witness that is insane,” Shriever said.
It revealed the best of her sport, of how much it can give. That was before it showed how much it can also take away.
