Sam Willoughby Medal Nominees Announced

We’re big Sam Willoughby fans here at the BMX News Global Command Center. So we were super-stoked last week when we learned about a new award that will recognize the kind of performance that made Sam one of the greats in BMX history.

BMX Australia announced the creation of the Sam Willoughby Medal to recognize one rider for outstanding results and performance at a State, National and International level in the preceding 12 months.

Here’s Sam announcing the five inaugural nominees:

The winner will be announced at the Australian BMX Hall Of Fame awards on July 20. Best of luck to the nominees, and big props to BMX Australia for creating this important new award.

Links

BMX Australia on Twitter

Sam Willoughby on Twitter

UCI Comments on BMX Aus. President Remarks

 

Last week, BMX Australia President, Neil Cameron, posted a 1900-word recap of his trip to the 2017 UCI BMX World Championships in Rock Hill, SC.

The top portion of his remarks paid recognition to all the riders who were part of Team Australia Read more

BMX Australia Pulls Plug on Training Ctr

You don’t usually hear about the tracks that DON’T get built. With the hot-hype of announcement day gone, they sort-of just limp away into the mist of history, never to be seen or heard from again.

Late last week, however, BMX Australia announced that a long-planned, multimillion dollar facility in Reedy Creek Gold Coast, Queensland will be shelved.

“Shelved” may not mean canceled, exctly, but it sounds about as likely as your boyhood dog coming back from the farm he went to when you were seven.

An article in the Gold Coast Bulletin said:

BMX Australia this morning announced they would no longer go ahead with the “BMX Centre of Excellence” which was set to be a training facility for the nation’s top BMX athletes.

The Gold Coast City Council had jumped on board, providing $1 million from surplus funds from last year’s project to help the project along.

The track was to be a training ground for future Olympians and use the Reedy Creek land previously used as a motocross track which closed in 2012.

BMX Australia CEO Martin Shaw said it was decided to build the Gold Coast track was no longer in the best interest of the sport.

“We have a new board that is setting a different direction for the sport and the significant financial contributions involved in a development of this nature, both initially and ongoing, were not deemed to be the best use of our limited financial resources,” he said. Wow, that’s a mackerel-slap of cold truth being told.

Mr Shaw said there was also a limit to the number of world standard tracks required in Australia.

There are four international standard tracks in Australia, including the Sleeman Sports Complex track in Chandler, Brisbane.

Now, if you just skimmed-over that blockquote, the one part that you need to read, and re-read is “We have a new board that is setting a different direction for the sport.” They are re-aligning the direction of the sport in Aus. Which is interesting, because similar talk is happening in certain circles here in the US.

The release didn’t go into exactly what “setting a different direction for the sport” means. But it sounds like the trend may be changing from gold and glory once every four years, to smiles for miles every day.

Of course, it isn’t necessarily a ding-alarm signaling the demise of BMX Supercross in Oz; Mr. Shaw said it himself, they have four “international standard” tracks in Australia. How many are necessary?

This was the scene just five months ago, as the facility was announced on September 1, 2016

Recently, New Zealand announced they were cutting their High Performance BMX program, requiring athletes to apply for support on a race by race basis. Matt Cameron announced his retirement, and Sarah Walker, though still keeping her 20” built up, is on to winning track bike titles now.

We always see post-Olympics review of the scales. How do the funds invested balance out against the results and goals each individual governing body has. And where do riders find the tipping point that keeps them fighting in the oxygen-starved environment of BMX Racing, versus pedaling into the great beyond.

Links

Article in the Gold Coast Bulletin

New Zealand cuts High Performance program for BMX

Sam Willoughby Update!

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It’s been a while since we passed-along an update to BMX News readers on the progress Sam Willoughby is making in his recovery after a tragic injury during a routine practice session in September 2016.

Sam was surrounded by friends and family as he made a triumphant, New Years Eve return Read more

Tyler Brown In Australia

Story and video by Tyler Brown

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend the Australian National BMX Championship. I have been lucky enough to travel to Australia in the past to race, but this was my first “BMX Australia” event! The trip started with a quick 14-hour flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Read more

BMX Australia Names 2016 Teams

Earlier this week, BMX Australia released its roster of the 45 athletes who will participate in it’s High Performance (HPP) and Development Academy programs in 2016. The HPP is the tippy-top of the Aussie program, and the five riders on the squad are exactly who you think they are Read more