Is BMX Freestyle on its way up?
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BMX freestyle is one of those sports that can take your breath away. The bunny hops, bar spins, 180s, often while flying through the air on a bike. You might have seen it at the Olympics in Tokyo and Paris. A

Along with skateboarding and climbing, it's hoped that BMX Freestyle will attract new, younger audiences. And this weekend, the UCI Urban Cycling World Championships are taking place in Abu Dhabi. They're going to feature three different BMX categories, including BMX Freestyle. So in this episode, we're asking, is BMX Freestyle on its way to becoming a household sport? I'm Hannah Gelbart, and you're listening to What In The World from the BBC World Service. ♪

Let's hear it from someone who is competing in Abu Dhabi this weekend. Tom Clements is a professional rider from Germany. Hi, Tom. Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you, guys. So to start off with, can you put us in the saddle and describe what it feels like when you pull off a trick on the BMX bike?

I mean, it's actually hard to describe to anyone who hasn't done it. But to me, it's an incredible feeling. It's especially landing a new trick when you've been, for example, working for hours to land this one trick and then it finally works out. And it's just a great feeling. How did you get into BMX Freestyle?

That was actually really random. I was always kind of like into bikes because my dad owned a bike shop. And then we were just going shopping in a big city and saw that there was an advertisement for a BMX contest. And well, we didn't have anything big to do. So we just went there, had a look. And I was into it from the first second I saw someone do a trick. What was it about BMX that captured your heart?

Probably the freestyle aspect. It's not like racing, you're not competing against others necessarily. But it's more like a battle with yourself because you're trying to land that new trick, you're trying to get better and kind of like the adrenaline and the height and everything. Are you a bit of an adrenaline junkie, would you say?

Yeah, probably. In what other ways? When I was little, I was always like doing some crazy stuff, even on like mountain bikes and stuff. And I was trampolines. I was always into like jumping.

You're going to hear more from Tom shortly, but now let's hear about where he's going to be competing. The Urban Cycling World Championships is one of the biggest competitions in BMX freestyle. It's second only to the Olympic Games. Countries nominate their best riders to compete for the world title, and the winner will ride away with over $8,000 in prize money.

There's a men's and a women's competition where athletes fight through qualification rounds to make it into the top 12 for the final. This has been running since 2017 and it was launched in China. So how does it all work? I'm speaking to Lucy Adams, an Olympic commentator and a professional skateboarder. Hi, Lucy. Hi. So Lucy, can you give us a little bit about yourself?

a sense of what a BMX freestyle competition looks like? Basically, it entails a course with ramps and they put together that in a line so they get 60 seconds to ride that course and do the best that they can. What the judges are looking for is difficulty of tricks,

So how high the risk is that you're taking with the tricks that you're doing, the flow that you put together by linking the tricks. Nobody wants to see backwards, forwards, backwards, forwards. How creative are you? What's the amplitude that you're going? The judges will look, they will give you a score out of 100 and the best run score counts. And what could a BMX season look like? How are the riders ranked? Yeah, so there are...

Over the season, there are different competitions. So the UCI is the International Federation, so the cycling world governing body, and they'll have World Cups throughout the season, and riders will take part in those to get a position, which ultimately then gives them a ranking across the world. And then that helps them enter those competitions and get into the higher heat. And then, yeah, so there's other competitions like...

continental competitions, and then there's a whole host of domestic events. When did BMX freestyle become a professional sport? When did all the buzz around that start? Yeah, well, I think BMX really started to become established in the 80s, around the time when the first wave of skate parks and skateboarders were using those skate parks to do their tricks. And BMX started to really become a thing. I think it gained momentum by getting inclusion in the X

games, really big extreme sports events. And then from there on, the UCI, the World Governing Body, they really recognised it in 2017. And I think that's when it got on that Tokyo agenda, the 2020 agenda, that they wanted to bring in those more youthful sports and along with sport climbing and skateboarding, BMX made it in. So they brought in those more youthful sports, presumably to get younger people watching and engaged with the Olympics and get us all really excited about it.

Did that work as a strategy? Yeah, I mean, I believe so. I think that the jewel in the crown, I guess, for the Olympic movement is the fact that the participants of these sports are tech savvy, digital savvy. And so the use of social media, those platforms like Instagram, TikTok and the engagement across the posts is,

are really something that I think that the Olympics wasn't gaining much traction with before. And how are these newer sports doing up against like the more traditional, the more established sports, things like football, tennis, football?

I think that they're doing really well because participation is growing. And I think that, again, back to the social media thing, those athletes or riders or skateboarders, whatever we call them, in those sports really have huge followings. The scene in the UK here is really taking off. But what about internationally? Oh, absolutely. I think that the Olympics give credit to that for enabling it to be much more global sports.

Especially having a continental quota, it's helped really boost some of the participation from different continents like Africa and in some parts of Asia. It's definitely rising and it's exciting to see. And talking of the global picture, I mean, we are speaking to you because this weekend it's the Urban Cycling World Championships. Who are some of the big names for us to watch out for?

Yeah, well, I mean, it's great. The ever-impressive Kieran Riley, who came second at the Olympics and won the silver medal in Paris. He's the current world champion. So he's the reigning world champion from Glasgow last year. And he's out there and he's looking like a force to be reckoned with. So he's one to watch. And in the women's, a solid performance, a

always from Hannah Roberts and she's had such a good season so she's out there and she'll be looking to do really well because she didn't get the sort of the medal that she hoped she would in Paris Lucy thank you so much for chatting to us absolutely no problem

Let's go back to Tom now. Tom, what does it take to be a BMX rider? The skills, but also the resilience? I mean, you obviously can't be too afraid to try out new things or to take risks. It's not an easy sport, I would say, but I mean, anyone can be. It's like you've got to try it out and see if it's...

for you if you enjoy it. And I would say just keep it going because it'll probably work. What particular aspects do you need to train to get good at it? Well, the main focus is obviously riding your bike because the tricks are insanely technical sometimes and that needs a lot of practice. But then there's also building muscle in the gym. So that helps with

with crashing for example because the muscles actually protect you from like breaking bones for example and also you need kind of a decent cardio because doing competition runs is one full minute which doesn't sound like a lot but it's like a minute of full sprint you gotta pedal you gotta do your tricks it's really exhausting do you have any advice for people who want to get into it

um yeah i would say don't be too afraid because it's really hard to start and you'll be like intimidated by all the rams and stuff so i would just say give it a go and see if you like it tom thank you so much for coming on the podcast and talking to us yep no problem it was my pleasure

If you want to hear more about sports, we have done episodes on how to become an Olympian and also how climate change is affecting sport. You can find those wherever you're listening to this. And if you haven't already, please do hit subscribe so that a brand new episode of What In The World can drop into your feed every weekday. That is it for today's episode. Thank you for listening. I'm Hannah Gelbart. This is What In The World from the BBC World Service. We'll see you next time. Bye.

Yoga is more than just exercise. It's the spiritual practice that millions swear by.

And in 2017, Miranda, a university tutor from London, joins a yoga school that promises profound transformation. It felt a really safe and welcoming space. After the yoga classes, I felt amazing. But soon, that calm, welcoming atmosphere leads to something far darker, a journey that leads to allegations of grooming, trafficking and exploitation across international borders.

I don't have my passport, I don't have my phone, I don't have my bank cards, I have nothing. The passport being taken, the being in a house and not feeling like they can leave.

You just get sucked in so gradually.

And it's done so skillfully that you don't realize. And it's like this, the secret that's there. I wanted to believe that, you know, that whatever they were doing, even if it seemed gross to me,

was for some spiritual reason that i couldn't understand revealing the hidden secrets of a global yoga network i feel that i have no other choice the only thing i can do is to speak about this and to put my reputation and everything else on the line i want truth and justice

And for other people to not be hurt, for things to be different in the future. To bring it into the light and almost alchemise some of that evil stuff that went on and take back the power. World of Secrets, Season 6, The Bad Guru. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.

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