15 April 2008
What’s New at the Beijing Games
Bicycle motocross, marathon swim debut in Olympic competition
By Alexandra Abboud
The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics will showcase world-class competition in 28 different sports, some new and others with a long history in the Olympic movement.
Sports such as aquatics, cycling, rowing, tennis, and wrestling have been Olympic events since the late 19th century. Other sports such as the triathlon and taekwondo were introduced as recently as the 2000 Summer Olympics.
Many sports have been added, changed, or removed from the program through the years of the modern Olympic movement. Although no new sports will be seen in Beijing, new sporting events will make their debut: in cycling, an individual men’s and women’s bicycle motocross (BMX); and in aquatics, a men’s and women’s 10-kilometer marathon.
BMX is a cycling sport featuring special bicycles with larger or smaller wheels than traditional bicycles, allowing riders to perform tricks. According to Olympic.org, BMX was developed in the United States in the late 1960s by young people who wanted to participate in a sport called motocross. A motorcycle is required equipment in motocross, and these young people couldn’t afford the more expensive equipment. Replacing a motorcycle with a less expensive bicycle, the participants dressed themselves in motocross gear and raced their bikes on self-made tracks. During the Olympics, BMX athletes will race on 350-meter circuits that will include jumps and obstacles.
The new 10-km marathon in swimming is a long-distance, open-water competition. The event in Beijing will not be held in the temperature-controlled, 50-meter pools where many other swimming events are taking place, but rather at the Shunyi Olympic Rowing-Canoeing Park, which has a water surface of 635,000 square meters and is where the rowing, canoeing, and kayaking aquatic events will also take place.
In order to complete the marathon of swimming, the 25 male and 25 female athletes will take four laps around the rowing basin at Shunyi, a distance that could typically take less than two hours to complete.
In addition to the new BMX and marathon swimming events, women’s events have been added to the existing men’s events in both equestrian and fencing competitions. Also, doubles events in table tennis will be replaced by team events.
Events included in the Olympic line-up change with the times. Tug-of-war, polo, water skiing, and power boating are all events that have been dropped from competition. The International Olympic Committee keeps a list of proposed new sports and periodically reconsiders events that might be in or out in forthcoming Olympiads.
