In a race known for anything being possible, it always makes for an exciting winner-take-all final. The French swept the men’s final while Saya Sakakibara won the women’s.
Men’s final
The men’s final was a showdown between the trio of Frenchmen: Sylvain Andre, Romain Mahieu and Joris Daudet, who had won all but one of the heats they were raced in at the Games. They dominated end-to-end; Daudet won gold with a time of 31.42. Andrew finished .28 behind him, with Mahieu in third. In a venue where they added seats to increase capacity, the crowd went nuts as did the riders in celebration.
It’s the first podium sweep for France at the Summer Olympics since 1924. Daudet earned his first medal in his 4th Olympics, he had crashed or had a minor collision in each of his previous Olympics.
American Cameron Wood finished fifth, .7 behind Daudet. New Zealand’s Izaac Kennedy had a good start, and looked to contend for a medal, but crashed on the first turn.
Women’s final
The women’s final saw Sakakibara win with a time of 34.23, after an extremely consistent Games where she won every race of the event. She’d be greeted at the finish line by her partner Mahieu who had just won bronze. It was a sweet moment after Sakakibara crashed in the semifinals in Tokyo and had to be stretchered off the course.
Netherlands Manon Veenstra seemed shocked to win silver while Switzerland’s Zoe Claessens finished third for the bronze medal. Claessens’ medal is the first medal in the event for Switzerland.
American Alise Willoughby had a good start but then a difficult first turn to drop her from second to fifth and never recovered, she’d finish sixth.
After having strong quarterfinal and semifinal races, defending Olympic champion Bethany Shriever finished eighth.
Men’s semifinals
The French men dominated the semifinals, they won every heat.
It was an interesting semifinals for the American men. Kamren Larsen and Cameron Wood found themselves on the outside looking in headed into the third run in 9th and 10th place, respectively.
The duo had a photo finish in their first heat, with Wood edging out Larsen for fourth and fifth place in the heat. The second heat was worst case scenario for Larsen when he crashed after a bump and was unable to finish. Larsen was perhaps rattled after the crash, coming in seventh in his final heat and ended his competition in a disappointing 14th.
After the fourth-place finish and a fifth-place finish, Wood finished second in his final semifinal run, his best place of the day. Wood snuck into the finals in the seventh position.
Great Britain’s Kyle Whyte crashed in his second run and would need to be stretchered off the track.
Women’s semifinals
The women’s field played out as expected. The only hiccup was Willoughby’s seventh place finish in her second run, it wasn’t enough to keep her out of the final eight as she rebounded with a third -place finish in her final heat.
Teammate Delany Vaughn didn’t do enough to make the final with a fourth and two sixth-place finishes, she’d finish 11th overall.
Defending Olympic champion Shriever won all her runs and Sakakibara also swept her heats.
In the end of an era moment, the “Queen of BMX” Mariana Pajon didn’t advance, she finished ninth on the outside looking in. For the first time in four Olympic Games she won’t be in the finals.
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