BMX Freestyle Park: UCI World Cycling Centre hosts international judges and athletes

Judging course and two competitions

The number of international judges for BMX Freestyle Park will grow significantly following four days dedicated to the Olympic discipline at the UCI World Cycling Centre (WCC) in Aigle, Switzerland.

The UCI WCC hosted the Swiss National Championships on Friday 8 August followed by an international C1 BMX Freestyle Park event on Saturday. Both competitions provided a practical training ground and final exam for the nine participants in the BMX Freestyle International Judges’ course.

The judges from nine countries (from Brazil, Chile, Singapore, Malaysia, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Latvia and Czechia) spent four days learning the ins and outs of international judging, before sitting a written exam, an oral exam and finally a practical exam at the weekend.

The successful candidates will join the pool of existing international judges, who the UCI appoints to competitions of the highest level: the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, the Olympic Games, and rounds of the UCI BMX Freestyle World Cup.

With the widespread popularity of BMX Freestyle Park, the large number of events on the UCI International Calendar, and the impressive skills of athletes around the world, it is important to ensure there are enough experts capable of judging at the very highest level.

Most of the judges who trained at the UCI WCC last week were already closely implicated in BMX Freestyle, either as national judges or athletes, and will be valuable assets to the discipline and its continued development.

Two high-level competitions

It was a golden opportunity for the judges to put their skills to the test – assisted by two experts who led the training course – as the C1 event attracted athletes of a very high level including several Olympians, the two German Champions crowned a week earlier and the two Swiss Champions from the previous day.

After a hard-fought women’s competition in the C1 event, German Champion Kim Lea Müller took the honours ahead of Tokyo 2020 bronze medallist Nikita Ducarroz, who had won her 6th Swiss title in Aigle the previous day. Third place went to Swiss National Championships silver medallist Michelle Neuner.

Germany’s National Championships bronze medallist Dean Florian won the men’s C1 event in front of Nikita Fominov (AIN) and fellow German Lars Kindermann (3rd). The newly-crowned Swiss Champion Edgar Huber was 8th in Saturday’s international competition.

The UCI WCC inaugurated its BMX Freestyle park in 2019, adding the facility to its BMX Racing track, pump track and velodrome.

Photos: Bart de Jong ©Fatbmx