Whence
BMX racing
Game

Where does BMX racing come from?

BMX racing comes from Southern California. Around 1970 children there began racing their bicycles on dirt tracks, copying the motocross riders of the day, and less than four decades later the sport made its Olympic debut.

Kids copying motocross

BMX stands for bicycle motocross. Its first riders were children on bikes such as the Schwinn Sting-Ray, a small-wheeled 'wheelie bike' that was easy to customise for better handling. In 1969 Ron Mackler, a teenage park attendant with motocross experience, set up races for local boys at Palms Park. The 1971 motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday, which opens with kids riding Sting-Rays off-road, is generally credited with inspiring the movement across the United States.

From vacant lots to a sport

In November 1970 a 13-year-old motocross racer, Scot Breithaupt, organised what he called 'pedal-cross' races on a vacant lot in Long Beach. His races had the sport's first rules, points system and skill classes, and he founded the Bicycle United Motocross Society. In 1974 Yamaha became BMX's first big-name sponsor. By the mid-1970s the sport had reached critical mass, national sanctioning bodies were forming, and manufacturers began building bicycles designed especially for it.

From California to the Olympics

In the early 1980s BMX became a craze in Britain, the must-have bike for children and teenagers. The International BMX Federation was founded in 1981 and held the first world championships in 1982, and since 1993 BMX has been part of the Union Cycliste Internationale. In 2003 the International Olympic Committee made BMX racing a medal sport for the 2008 Games in Beijing, where Māris Štrombergs of Latvia and Anne-Caroline Chausson of France became the first Olympic champions.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org › BMX ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › BMX racing ↗ · en.wikipedia.org › Scot Breithaupt ↗ · vice.com ↗ · britishculturearchive.co.uk ↗

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