There are few sports in the Olympics that put the very lives of an athlete at risk. One of them is BMX racing. It was introduced at the 2008 Beijing Games and will take place again at the upcoming Paris Olympics.
FILE - Colombia’s Carlos Mario Oquendo Zabala crashes during a BMX cycling men’s quarterfinal run at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012. The most dangerous event at the upcoming Paris Olympics might well be BMX, where broken bones, concussions and even paralysis occur with scary regularity.
“You can hate something and you can blame it, but at the same time, we obviously love what we do, and it’s our livelihood,” Alise Willoughby said. “Sam and I met through it. It’s given as much as it’s taken. So it’s just — it’s just people who love the sport.”BMX racing is often described as NASCAR on two wheels, only stock car racing is probably safer.
“There’s no way to check this,” Fields said, “but I might be the only athlete to both win the Olympics and nearly die at one.” “There was a lot of misinformation floating around. And there wasn’t an update,” Field said. “I’m friends with Kurt Busch, the NASCAR driver, and he owns a plane. He offered to fly my parents over, and it went high up the chain. But the Japan government basically said, ‘Nope, you can’t come over.’ So my parents just had to wait.”
“There’s inherent risks in pretty much every sport,” said Fields, who is busy now as a BMX ambassador, hosts a TV show back home in Nevada and delivers keynote addresses. “When I was cleared, there were no restrictions. I could go compete again. I had to sit on it and really think, ‘Am I willing to take the risk again?’ And you know, the answer this time was no.
Cycling Olympic Games Kurt Busch S Sports Tokyo Paris
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