Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's BMX

The men's BMX racing competition at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on August 20–22 at the Laoshan BMX Field, the first to be officially featured in the Olympic cycling program.

Men's BMX at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Olympic BMX racing
Venue	Laoshan BMX Field
Date	August 20, 2008 (seeding and quarterfinals) August 22, 2008 (semifinals and final)
Competitors	32 from 20 nations
Winning time	36.190
Medalists
Māris Štrombergs  Latvia Mike Day  United States Donny Robinson  United States
2012 →

Latvia's Māris Štrombergs powered his lead over the eight-strong final squad from the start to grab his nation's first gold medal at the Games. He stormed home on a sprint run to a finish in 36.190, leaving the American duo Mike Day and Donny Robinson behind at 36.606 and 36.972 for the silver and bronze medals respectively.^[1][2]

Qualification

Main article: Cycling at the 2008 Summer Olympics - Qualification § BMX

Thirty-two riders representing twenty countries are 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, ANOC, UCI).^[3]

Competition format

Each of the 32 men competing performed two runs of the course in individual time trials to determine seeding for the knockout rounds. Then, they were grouped into 4 quarterfinal groups based on that seeding. Each quarterfinal consisted of three runs of the course, using a point-for-place system. The top four cyclists in each quarterfinal (for a total of 16) moved on to the semifinals. The semifinals also used a three-race point-for-place system to determine which cyclists advanced, with the top four in each of the two semifinals moving on to the final. Unlike the previous two rounds, the final consisted of a single race with the first to the finish line claiming the gold medal.^[4]

Schedule

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)^[5]

Date	Time	Round
Wednesday, 20 August 2008	09:00	Seeding
Wednesday, 20 August 2008	11:40	Quarterfinals
Friday, 22 August 2008	09:00	Semifinals and final

Results

Seeding

Rank	Name	Time	Notes
1	Mike Day (USA)	35.692
2	Māris Štrombergs (LAT)	35.910
3	Damien Godet (FRA)	36.008
4	Artūrs Matisons (LAT)	36.072
5	Raymon van der Biezen (NED)	36.112
6	Sergio Salazar (COL)	36.145
7	Augusto Castro (COL)	36.301
8	Jonathan Suárez (VEN)	36.325
9	Andrés Jiménez (COL)	36.339
10	Manuel de Vecchi (ITA)	36.351
11	Jared Graves (AUS)	36.372
12	Kyle Bennett (USA)	36.421
13	Sifiso Nhlapo (RSA)	36.428
14	Roger Rinderknecht (SUI)	36.466
15	Kamakazi (AUS)	36.492
16	Ivo Lakučs (LAT)	36.509
17	Marc Willers (NZL)	36.519
18	Rob van den Wildenberg (NED)	36.522
19	Thomas Allier (FRA)	36.649
20	Michal Prokop (CZE)	36.689
21	Ramiro Marino (ARG)	36.768
22	Luke Madill (AUS)	36.795
23	Robert de Wilde (NED)	36.803
24	Donny Robinson (USA)	36.810
25	Emilio Falla (ECU)	36.993
26	Scott Erwood (CAN)	37.050
27	Cristian Becerine (ARG)	37.253
28	Liam Phillips (GBR)	37.392
29	Henrik Baltzersen (DEN)	37.635
30	Sebastian Kartfjord (NOR)	38.688
31	Vilmos Radasics (HUN)	38.830
32	Akifumi Sakamoto (JPN)	40.548

Quarterfinals

Heat 1

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Mike Day (USA)	36.170 (1)	36.080 (1)	36.122 (1)	3	Q
2	Marc Willers (NZL)	47.614 (4)	36.253 (3)	36.278 (2)	9	Q
3	Donny Robinson (USA)	48.906 (6)	36.235 (2)	36.490 (3)	11	Q
4	Andrés Jiménez (COL)	36.619 (2)	36.939 (5)	36.660 (4)	11	Q
5	Jonathan Suárez (VEN)	53.614 (8)	36.481 (4)	36.789 (5)	17
6	Emilio Falla (ECU)	37.080 (3)	37.381 (6)	1:02.877 (8)	17
7	Akifumi Sakamoto (JPN)	48.487 (5)	42.614 (8)	40.046 (6)	19
8	Ivo Lakučs (LAT)	53.300 (7)	39.213 (7)	57.461 (7)	21

Heat 2

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Sifiso Nhlapo (RSA)	36.796 (3)	36.325 (2)	36.507 (1)	6	Q
2	Artūrs Matisons (LAT)	35.903 (1)	36.819 (3)	37.037 (2)	6	Q
3	Raymon van der Biezen (NED)	37.205 (4)	35.878 (1)	1:04.709 (5)	10	Q
4	Kyle Bennett (USA)	36.639 (2)	37.146 (4)	DNF (8)	14	Q
5	Henrik Baltzersen (DEN)	38.561 (8)	39.083 (5)	38.846 (3)	16
6	Michal Prokop (CZE)	38.535 (7)	41.915 (7)	56.171 (4)	18
7	Liam Phillips (GBR)	37.773 (5)	41.219 (6)	1:27.010 (7)	18
8	Ramiro Marino (ARG)	38.202 (6)	DNF (8)	1:16.617 (6)	20

Heat 3

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Māris Štrombergs (LAT)	36.762 (1)	35.934 (1)	40.628 (5)	7	Q
2	Rob van den Wildenberg (NED)	37.403 (2)	37.024 (5)	37.176 (1)	8	Q
3	Manuel de Vecchi (ITA)	37.416 (3)	37.284 (6)	37.840 (2)	11	Q
4	Kamakazi (AUS)	42.377 (7)	36.785 (3)	38.463 (3)	13	Q
5	Augusto Castro (COL)	37.609 (4)	36.992 (4)	42.473 (6)	14
6	Vilmos Radasics (HUN)	38.725 (6)	39.220 (8)	39.276 (4)	18
7	Robert de Wilde (NED)	54.105 (8)	36.237 (2)	1:08.185 (8)	18
8	Scott Erwood (CAN)	37.989 (5)	37.653 (7)	50.052 (7)	19

Heat 4

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Jared Graves (AUS)	38.067 (1)	36.496 (2)	36.076 (1)	4	Q
2	Cristian Becerine (ARG)	38.399 (2)	42.733 (7)	36.985 (2)	11	Q
3	Roger Rinderknecht (SUI)	54.234 (8)	36.462 (1)	37.136 (3)	12	Q
4	Damien Godet (FRA)	41.241 (3)	40.221 (4)	38.023 (6)	13	Q
5	Sergio Salazar (COL)	54.216 (7)	37.479 (3)	37.573 (5)	15
6	Thomas Allier (FRA)	41.594 (4)	41.043 (5)	38.037 (7)	16
7	Luke Madill (AUS)	51.198 (6)	1:02.432 (8)	37.420 (4)	18
8	Sebastian Kartfjord (NOR)	42.658 (4)	42.625 (6)	38.821 (8)	19

Semifinals

Semifinal 1

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Mike Day (USA)	36.470 (1)	36.219 (1)	37.461 (3)	5	Q
2	Sifiso Nhlapo (RSA)	37.197 (3)	36.597 (3)	36.457 (2)	8	Q
3	Donny Robinson (USA)	36.832 (2)	36.462 (2)	56.249 (6)	10	Q
4	Andrés Jiménez (COL)	37.363 (4)	36.862 (4)	44.507 (5)	13	Q
5	Raymon van der Biezen (NED)	55.121 (7)	37.258 (6)	36.200 (1)	14
6	Kyle Bennett (USA)	43.518 (5)	37.200 (5)	43.897 (4)	14
7	Artūrs Matisons (LAT)	53.379 (6)	1:17.170 (8)	DNF (8)	22
8	Marc Willers (NZL)	1:22.619 (8)	43.256 (7)	DNF (8)	23

Semifinal 2

Rank	Name	1st run	2nd run	3rd run	Total	Notes
1	Māris Štrombergs (LAT)	36.485 (1)	35.969 (1)	36.071 (1)	3	Q
2	Rob van den Wildenberg (NED)	37.277 (3)	36.360 (2)	37.496 (4)	9	Q
3	Jared Graves (AUS)	36.904 (2)	39.296 (5)	37.242 (3)	10	Q
4	Damien Godet (FRA)	37.410 (4)	36.707 (4)	37.805 (6)	14	Q
5	Cristian Becerine (ARG)	37.480 (5)	DNF (8)	37.079 (2)	15
6	Kamakazi (AUS)	42.551 (7)	41.256 (6)	37.497 (5)	18
7	Roger Rinderknecht (SUI)	DNF (8)	36.610 (3)	48.734 (8)	19
8	Manuel de Vecchi (ITA)	38.018 (6)	42.148 (7)	38.208 (7)	20

Final

Rank	Name	Time	Notes
	Māris Štrombergs (LAT)	36.190
	Mike Day (USA)	36.606
	Donny Robinson (USA)	36.972
4	Andrés Jiménez (COL)	39.137
5	Rob van den Wildenberg (NED)	39.772
6	Jared Graves (AUS)	2:19.233
7	Sifiso Nhlapo (RSA)	DNF
8	Damien Godet (FRA)	DNF