Nyhaug gears up for ‘wide-open’ BMX competition
RIO DE JANEIRO — The way Tory Nyhaug sees it, there are 20 competitors who honestly expect to be on the podium at the end of Friday’s BMX final.
“It’s crazy,” the lone Canadian in the event says. “I don’t know that many sports that are that wide open, to be honest. That’s what makes BMX really cool. It’s so tight and you can’t call it before. It’s just the nature of the sport.”
Nyhaug, a 24-year-old from Coquitlam, certainly believes he is one of the riders who can be on the podium, but it will take three great days of racing.
The competition starts Wednesday with seeding runs and continues Thursday with the quarter-finals. The semifinals and final are slated for Friday.
A high-intensity race on a short track that includes jumps, bumps and tight, banked corners, the world of BMX racing is as unpredictable as it is entertaining.
“There’s a lot of guys who have podiumed in World Cups, world championships, major games and are expecting to be in the final going for the gold medal,” Nyhaug says.
“There’s only eight guys that can get in and it’s going to be a fight getting in there. I’ve had a good couple of months to build and I’m ready. I’m the best I’ve ever been.”
Nyhaug is making his second Olympic appearance after getting knocked out in the quarter-finals in London in 2012.
On that occasion, he was just 20 years old and was coming off a major injury just 11 weeks earlier. Nyhaug had his spleen removed after rupturing it for the second time. He resumed training just one week after the surgery.
“Going into London, I was coming off a big injury and now I’m healthy,” he says. “I’ve got a lot more experience. I think I’m a lot calmer coming in and a lot more confident coming in. It’s tough to go into your first Olympics when you are young and you don’t really know what to expect. It’s just big. Second Olympics ... I’m stoked to be here and I’m really excited to be a part of this.”
The truth is Nyhaug does this pretty much every week and so do all the other competitors in the field. The only difference in this event is that there are far fewer competitors to start the time trials: Just 32 compared with upwards of 100 at times.
“The competition is the same,” Nyhaug says. “It’s the same guys as on the World Cup circuit and the circuit we race in the U.S. There’s no secrets. Everyone knows who is good. There are no surprises anywhere.”
Nyhaug says he has had an up and down year, making a World Cup final and winning his fair share of time trials. He also had a few crashes.
“In true BMX fashion, it’s been all over the place,” he says.