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BMX has its first Olympic champions. At this historic moment for a young sport, but a sport with a dazzling Olympic future ahead of it, the inaugural gold medal winners are Anne-Caroline Chausson and Maris Strombergs.

For the Frenchwoman, this is the crowning glory of an absolutely fantastic career – even more than her multiple mountain bike downhill world championship victories. Chausson came to cycling through BMX and has returned to her first love to carry off the only triumph that has escaped her.

Her wealth of experience seemed to allow her to handle the pressure of the Olympic final better than her rival Shanaze Reade. After crashing in the semi-final, the British rider risked everything in the final on the last bend, while placed second to Chausson, but crashed out again, excluding her from the medals.

With the World Champion from Taiyuan on the ground and Anne-Caroline Chausson far ahead to claim her gold, another French rider, Laetitia le Corguillé, came home for silver followed by the American Jill Kintner, already a multiple 4X World Champion, for bronze.

In the men's event, the Latvian Maris Strombergs beat his US rivals for the second time in just over two months. Strombergs had finished ahead of Steven Cisar at the World Championships at Taiyuan and today relegated Mike Day and Donny Robinson to silver and bronze at the magnificent Laoshan track, where the sun and heat had returned to replace the rain.

Strombergs received his gold medal from UCI President Pat McQuaid. After this victory, the Latvian rider is clearly the world’s best in BMX.

The finals of this new discipline in the cycling programme of the Olympic Games were watched by a passionate crowd as well as a large number of media representatives and celebrities. The spectacle offered by the BMX riders aroused great enthusiasm in those witnessing the passion of BMX racing for the first time. Pat McQuaid described the discipline's first Olympic events as “excellent from all points of view” and continued, “BMX has enriched the range of Olympic cycling competition. I'm very happy for all competitors in the sport who have earned recognition at this highest of levels.”

The Olympic cycling events conclude tomorrow. The cross-country mountain bike races will take place around the Laoshan complex. The difficult mountain bike course should be in perfect condition again after the heavy rain. The stage is set for two enthralling races. The women’s event takes place in the morning while the men race for gold in the afternoon. The last medals to be won are often the most thrilling!

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