One minute to show your style: The artistic side of urban sports

The freestyle sports debate: What came first, sport or art?

The balance of athletic and artistic skills in freestyle urban sports has sparked a debate, are these sports or art? A bit of both, according to the athletes competing in them.

“[Skateboarding] offers so many different things,” said Canadian skater Micky Papa. “There’s fulfilment, there’s escape, there’s artistic expression. It’s definitely where sport and art meet.”

Nick Bruce considered BMX freestyle more of a sport until, side-lined with injuries in recent years, he had the opportunity to watch fellow riders closely as a spectator. As he did, the USA rider developed a new appreciation for the artistic side of his sport.

“It’s a true art form, seeing what my friends and competitors put together on their bikes, on these difficult courses or these new courses that we’ve only got to ride for one hour, for one day. And then we have to figure out this one-minute run of all of our hard tricks that we practise on completely different ramps at home for weeks,” Bruce said. “To be able to formulate a run and put something magical together, that’s art. And that art is what moves the judges of like, ‘Wow’. That’s what gets the emotion behind of what makes a winning run.”

The way BMX freestyle is scored tends to favour a more creative approach. There is no set points system to evaluate the tricks, which gives the riders more freedom to experiment.

Bruce expects that might change now that BMX freestyle is an Olympic sport. It is a change that riders both welcome and dread. On one hand, it will be helpful to know exactly how many points each trick is worth, but on the other, it might make the sport too rigid.

Whichever way BMX freestyle will evolve next, Bruce is certain it will keep its artistic character as riders try to outdo each other’s tricks with daring inventions or changing up the order of their delivery.

“BMX will always be an art in that case,” Bruce said. “There’s some sort of magic behind of how someone puts these certain tricks in a certain order, or the timing of it at the end of the run or beginning or middle. It all adds up to one spectacular performance, and that’s what moves people.”