The Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) has announced the qualification systems for mountain bike, BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle for Tokyo 2020, which have been updated as a result of the postponement of the Olympic Games due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following the rescheduling of the Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) asked all International Federations with sports included in the Tokyo 2020 competition programme but whose qualification was not yet complete to review their qualification systems and propose a contingency plan. The UCI did this for mountain bike, BMX Racing and BMX Freestyle, as qualification was not yet terminated for these disciplines. The qualification processes for road and track cycling were completed in March 2020, at the time of the IOC’s decision to postpone the Olympic Games for a year.
Based on the UCI’s contingency plan, it was proposed to make some amendments to the qualification systems which had last been revised in 2020 to take into account the freezing of the UCI rankings as of 3 March 2020, and the change of date of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. These changes also reflect the IOC’s updated qualification system principles for Tokyo 2020, which were published on 30 March 2020. The approved qualification system updates for cycling events are published on the UCI website in both English and French.
The updates for each discipline are:
Mountain bikeThe UCI Olympic Qualification Ranking is confirmed to be that of 3 March 2020 combined with the results of the UCI Mountain Bike World Cup events held in 2021 before the end of the Qualification Period (currently 16 May, but at latest, in the case of any postponement, 6 June). Two UCI World Cup rounds (Albstadt, Germany, on 8 - 9 May, and Nove Mesto Na Morave, Czech Republic, on 15 – 16 May) currently fall within this Qualification Period in 2021, meaning qualification will finish on the final day of the second round of the UCI World Cup. At present, both events look set to go ahead as planned.
BMX RacingThe UCI Olympic Qualification Ranking is confirmed to be that of 3 March 2020 combined with the results of the UCI BMX World Cup weekends in 2021 held before the end of the Qualification Period. Two weekends of racing (four rounds) currently fall within the Qualification Period in 2021 (Verona, Italy, on 8 – 9 May, and Bogota, Colombia, on 29 – 30 May), meaning qualification will finish on the final day of the second UCI World Cup weekend (30 May). At present, the four rounds on both weekends look set to take place as planned.
The second qualification pathway, based on the UCI Individual BMX Ranking, has been amended to be definitive as of 3 March 2020, at the commencement of the COVID-19 crisis. No further results from later in 2020 or in 2021 will be added to this ranking. This means that the 3 quota places for each gender allocated via this ranking pathway will be awarded using only the ranking published on 3 March 2020: this was the ranking the most representative of the true ability of the athletes as it took into account a wide variety of results from all event categories, including events where all of the best riders were present. It is fairer to use this ranking than the current UCI Individual BMX Ranking which continues to be affected by the impact of COVID-19 on the UCI BMX International Calendar.
BMX FreestyleThe UCI Olympic Qualification Ranking is confirmed to be that of 3 March 2020 combined with the results of the 2021 UCI Urban Cycling World Championships, to be held in Montpellier, France, on 4-8 June.