The women's

BMX racing BMX racing is a type of off-road bicycle racing. The format of BMX was derived from motocross racing. BMX bicycle races are sprint races on purpose-built off-road single-lap race tracks. The track usually consists of a starting gate for up to ...

competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 20–22 at the

Laoshan BMX Field The Laoshan Bicycle Moto Cross (BMX) () was one of 9 temporary venues used for the 2008 Summer Olympics. It was located in Laoshan, Shijingshan District, Beijing. The venue was used for the men's and women's BMX racing BMX racing is a type ...

, the first to be officially featured in the Olympic cycling program. Coming out of retirement from her sporting career to try out for BMX at age thirty,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

Anne-Caroline Chausson Anne-Caroline Chausson (born 8 October 1977 in Dijon) is a French professional cyclist who competes in bicycle enduro, bicycle motocross (BMX), downhill time trial and cross-country mass start, dual, and four-cross mountain bicycle racing. S ...

escaped from an early race crash that left two riders off the ramp to claim the event's inaugural Olympic gold medal. She thundered home on the final stretch to a spectacular finish with a fastest time in 35.976. Chausson also enjoyed her teammate Laëtitia Le Corguillé taking home the silver in 38.042, as she finished the race behind the leader by nearly seven hundredths of a second (0.07) and also, handed the French squad a straight 1–2 finish on the medal podium. Meanwhile, United States'

Jill Kintner Jill Kintner (born October 24, 1981, from Burien, Washington, United States) is a professional American "Mid School" Bicycle Motocross (BMX) and professional mountain cross (four-cross or 4X) racer. Her competitive years were 1995 to 2002, 20 ...

came up with a powerful, stalwart ride to earn the bronze in 38.674, edging out New Zealand's Sarah Walker by a short sprint distance.

Qualification

Sixteen riders representing twelve countries qualified for the event. Qualification was based on UCI ranking by nations, 2008 UCI BMX World Championships results and wild-cards reserved to a ''Tripartite Commission'' (

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

, ANOC, UCI).

Competition format

Each of the 16 women competing performed two runs of the course in individual time trials to determine seeding for the knockout rounds. Then, they were grouped into 2 semifinal groups based on that seeding. Each semifinal consisted of three runs of the course, using a point-for-place system. The top four cyclists in each semifinal (for a total of 8) moved on to the final. Unlike the semifinals, the final consisted of a single race with the first to the finish line claiming the gold medal.

Schedule

All times are

China Standard Time The time in China follows a single standard time offset of UTC+08:00 (eight hours ahead of Coordinated Universal Time), even though the country spans almost five geographical time zones. The official national standard time is called ''Beijing T ...

(

UTC+8 UTC+08:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +08:00. With an estimated population of 1.708 billion living within the time zone, roughly 24% of the world population, it is the most populous time zone in the world, as well as a ...

)

Results

Seeding

Semifinals

Heat 1

Heat 2

Final

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Women's BMX Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics BMX at the Summer Olympics 2000s in women's BMX 2008 in BMX 2008 in women's cycle racing Women's events at the 2008 Summer Olympics