Paris Olympics: USA’s Perris Benegas wins silver in BMX Freestyle; men stage furious chase for gold

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PARIS — Every park has its quirks, its eccentricities, its charms. Every park means the world to someone who spent their days learning to ride there. But no park on earth can match the history of the Parc Urbain, the skate/cycling/breaking hub in the heart of Paris. Here, history looms on all sides, and the only way to break free of that history is to rise above it — which is literally what two sets of medalists did on Tuesday at the BMX freestyle event at Place de la Concorde.

Unlike BMX racing, which pits riders against one another, freestyle gives riders the room and creativity to come up with as many tricks as they can pull off in two one-minute runs. In the women’s competition, the United States’ Hannah Roberts came into Wednesday as the top qualifier, and her first run started out strong — box jump, backflip, bar spin — that ended just a few seconds early when she was unable to land her final front flip and only scored a 70.00. Deng Yawen of China’s double tail whip and triple bar spin earned her a first-round-leading 92.50. Australia’s Natalya Diehm (88.80) and Chile’s Maracena Perez Grasset rounded out the top three.

Team USA’s Perris Benegas threw down a strong initial run, catching massive air for almost the entirety of her minute. She didn’t have quite the style that the judges craved, however, and she ended that round with an 83.40.

The first rider on the afternoon, France’s Laury Perez, a clear hometown favorite, fell hard on her very first trick and was unable to continue her first run. Perez was only able to manage a 63.40 in her second run. Sun Jiaqi of China suffered a scary fall at the end of her first round that left her shaken, but she left the course under her own power. She fell again early in her second run, eliminating all medal hopes, but she drew warm applause from the crowd for her determined effort to continue.

In her second run, Diehm couldn’t improve on her first, finishing with an 87.70. Chile’s Perez Grasset, riding to the pulse of Motley Crue’s “Kickstart My Heart,” moved up marginally with an 84.55. But Colombia’s Serna Villegas tipped her with a second-run 88.00, taking over the conditional bronze medal spot, but only for a moment.

On her second run, the United States’ Benegas once again climbed high into the air, but this time with a bit more style than the first round. Her second-run 90.70 leaped her all the way into a medal spot; the only question left was whether it would be silver or bronze.

Deng was riding with at least a silver medal in hand, and improved her score by one-tenth of a point, to an event-leading 92.60.

That meant the entire competition came down to Roberts, whose first run was well off the podium. But she didn’t cleanly land her first jump, and threw her bike down in frustration. An American would win a medal on Wednesday, but it wasn’t her. The silver would go to Benegas.

The men started out hotter than even the searing temperatures, with Brazil’s Gustavo Batista de Oliveira debuting with a 90.20, and Argentina’s Jose Torres topping that with an astounding 94.82. Rimu Nakamaura of Japan threw down a 90.35 that left him in third after the round.

Like his fellow French rider Perez, Anthony Jeanjean busted out almost immediately in his first run, losing his shoe on a failed trick. Right after him, the first American male rider, Justin Dowell’s 88.35 wasn’t enough to put him on a provisional podium after his first run.

Perhaps the falls became contagious, because defending gold medalist Logan Martin clipped his back wheel when landing a jump in his final 10 seconds that spoiled an astounding run, and then Marcus Christopher of the United States lost it early in his run. Great Britain’s Kieran Reilly, the top qualifier from Tuesday, halted the run of falls by ripping off a 93.70 to put himself in the silver medal position after the first round.

The second round began with medals at stake, and Batista de Oliveira couldn’t close the gap on the leaders. Torres, in the provisional gold medal spot, couldn’t improve on his first round. Nakamura added a touch to his bronze-level score, rising to a 90.89.

Then came Jeanjean, carrying the weight of the hometown crowd on his shoulders with no margin for error. The Flying Frenchman lived up to his nickname, sailing high above the course time and time again with flips and tail whips. After an agonizingly long wait, he was awarded a 93.76, good enough for a potential silver medal.

Dowell and Martin bailed out early on their runs when it became clear they couldn’t break into medal contention. Christopher improved on his first run, but his 93.11 wasn’t enough to get onto the podium, meaning that the U.S. was locked out of a medal in the men’s division.

Reilly, already locked into at least a bronze, stepped it up for his final round, throwing down an impressive 93.91 to finish with a silver medal. Torres’ first run held up for the gold, and Jeanjean’s comeback run nabbed him a bronze.

Added only for the 2021 Games, BMX Freestyle is already one of the most popular new events at the Olympics. Martin’s gold medal-winning score in 2021 would not have even made the podium in 2024. The crowd was vibrant and engaged, and the atmosphere absolutely charged. There’s a new vibe at the Olympics, and BMX freestylers are at the leading edge of it.