Is BMX Freestyle sport or art? The riders have their say

BMX Freestyle as an art form

That point of judging – something subjective in BMX freestyle, where it comes down to how each judge feels about an unscripted run with no set points for each move – is what makes BMX freestyle more of an art, according to USA coach and multiple-time X Games champ Ryan Nyquist.

Speaking before BMX freestyle’s Olympic debut in Tokyo, he told Olympics.com: “We don’t have prerequisite tricks or even a standardised score for certain tricks. Our event is kind of based on… they call it ‘overall impressions’.

“It’s called ‘freestyle’ for a reason because you get 60 seconds and it’s similar to an artist, it’s just your palette. You can create in that, paint on that canvas whichever way you want, and then you show [the judges] your artwork, and you’re like ‘Do you like it?’

“And then they go: ‘We really like it! We’re going to give you a 99!’ That’s what you hope for.”

And while Bruce says being competitive lends itself more to sport, he still sees BMX freestyle more as an art for the judging aspect.

“What everyone seems to be worried about with our sport becoming an Olympic sport (is) that it might be too rigid or robotic. I really think BMX works itself out because even if it is points driven per trick, it’s going to bring more exciting tricks.

“So it’s like, ‘Oh, this is only worth X amount of points.’ But to beat that you’re going to have to do an even harder trick that no one even knows how to score, but it’s just spectacular enough to make you go, ‘What the heck?’ That’s what makes the art again.”

Roberts adds: “I definitely think when it comes to just having fun, it’s definitely an art form, where you can make whatever you want to make.”

Nicki, too, agrees that developing a run to thrill the judges lends itself to the art argument. “Planning our runs, it’s also kind of like an artwork. It’s performing to the judges,” she says.

“You have your minute and you have to really plan it out, where you’re going to do your big tricks, where are you going to do your smaller tricks to fill the run out, where am I going next in the course.”