Cleve Dheensaw, CanWest News Service
VICTORIA - The newest Summer Olympics sport will be on display in Victoria on Thursday as nearly 2,000 athletes will compete in the BMX world championships.
Athletes from 39 countries will be flying all over the dirt track, hoping to earn coveted spots in next year's Beijing Olympics.
The Beijing organizing committee has sent a contingent of 12 to Victoria for the event. The Olympic BMX venue will be located next to the velodrome and mountain biking trail in the 2008 Summer Games' cycling hub located in the Laoshan district of Beijing.
"From a public profile perspective, to the sport sciences and the elite athletes having to learn how to prepare for a four-year quadrennial, this sport literally changed overnight because of its inclusion in the Olympics," said Team Canada BMX head coach Tanya Dubnicoff.
It's just a matter of the International Olympic Committee being forced to move with the times, noted Abe Schneider of Australia, president of the BMX Commission for the Union Cycliste Internationale.
"The Olympic youth audience viewership base is lower (than other demographics who watch the Games) and the IOC was looking for something different and what could be more exciting than BMX?" said Schneider. "I believe that in the future, we will see other extreme sports creeping into the Olympics."
BMX, short for bicycle motocross, became popular in California in the 1960s. Racers compete in heats of up to eight riders in a motocross-style track. The top riders move on to elimination rounds.
Because BMX tracks are dirt-based (the corners are asphalt), the recent rains in Victoria has caused some problems.
"There have been challenges," admitted Marischal De Armond, general manager of the 2007 BMX world championships. "I've been keeping more of an eye on the forecast than any weatherman."
Skies are expected to clear this week.
CBC will broadcast live the elite world championship/Olympic qualifying races Saturday from 1 to 4 p.m. on Country Canada and will replay the show Aug. 4 on Sports Saturday.
The event comes on the heels of the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Victoria.
"The World Cup soccer games created a real vibrancy around town and we've got big shoes to fill," admitted De Armond. "There is really only room around town for one big international sports story at a time."
The BMXworlds are expected to have a positive impact on Victoria's economy.
"These world championships will have a $13 million to $14 million economic impact on the city and the region," predicted Schneider.
