Robinson into Beijing BMX semifinals

By TIM REYNOLDS, AP Sports Writer

BEIJING — The theme from “Rocky” and AC/DC’s “Thunderstruck” blared from speakers as Chinese cheerleaders and breakdancers gyrated along. Outside, plenty of people without tickets tried desperately to talk their way in, just to be part of it all. The stands were filled with fans, cheering for every jump, gasping with every crash.

The BMX world had never seen this before. The sport finally had reached the Olympics.

And for those who had never seen it, American racers Mike Day and Kyle Bennett showed exactly what BMX is about.

Day put on a display of dominance, winning the time trial and each of his three quarterfinal heats to cruise into the semifinals. Bennett moved on as well, but paid a huge price, dislocating his left shoulder after a nasty wreck in his final heat.

Welcome to BMX, where anything can happen.

“We’re all excited to be here,” Day said. “It’s a huge step for BMX. If you could pick one stage to be on, it’d be the Olympic stage. And I know I’ve been thinking about it for 3 1/2 years.”

Napa’s Donny Robinson also moved on, the world’s top-ranked racer surviving after crashing in the first of his three quarterfinal runs to advance to the semifinals, where he, Day and Bennett — who got his shoulder popped back into place and intends to continue — will race together Thursday.

Jill Kintner, the lone American in the 16-racer women’s field, qualified with a No. 7 seed for Thursday’s semifinals.

Bennett’s injury not withstanding, the Olympic debut was everything the U.S. envisioned.

“You can’t get much more rad than this,” Robinson said.

Not in the Summer Games, anyway.

BMX, or bicycle motocross, was started in California about 40 years ago, and even some of its most ardent followers were stunned when the International Olympic Committee decided to add it for the Beijing program, hoping it would provide a spark much in the same fashion that snowboarding did for the Winter Olympics.

If Day 1 was any indication, the IOC’s plan is working.

“Other athletes are talking about it, and they’re like, ‘That’s the most exciting thing,’” said Kintner, who’s racing with a shredded knee ligament — a testament to her toughness. “A lot of people are talking about it. People recognize me in the village. I’m like, wow, that’s kind of weird.”

And Day 2, when the sport’s first-ever Olympic medals are awarded, should be star-studded. IOC president Jacques Rogge plans to attend, as do LeBron James and Kobe Bryant.

“I hope they come,” said Day, a Southern California guy and a diehard Lakers fan. “It’d be awesome if Kobe comes out. The whole experience has been so overwhelming.”

He overwhelmed the field, too.

Known as the best time-trial racer in the BMX world, Day lived up to that billing, and then easily went to the lead in all three of his quarterfinals, when he shared the track with seven other riders.

“I had a great day,” Day said. “Not to sound cocky, but everything’s kind of coming naturally. Everything feels good, so hopefully tomorrow will be the same. I felt good and hopefully I made a statement today.”

Day’s plan was simple: Get to the front and stay out of trouble.

In the spills-and-thrills world of BMX, that’s a good plan. It’s one that Robinson and Bennett couldn’t find a way to match.

Robinson, who won on the Beijing course last year in its debut event, saw his Olympic hopes put in peril with his early crash. But he finished second in the next heat and held on in the third race to earn his spot on Thursday’s card.

“I needed to be consistent and it worked out,” Robinson said.

Bennett’s misfortune was no fault of his own. Wrong place, wrong time — a classic situation in BMX.

He fell after Dutch racer Raymon van der Biezen lost control exiting the first turn and tumbled to the asphalt. Bennett ran over van der Biezen’s bike, fell awkwardly and remained on the track for several minutes, as those filling the stands on a bright early afternoon seemed shocked to see medics rushing out to help.

They cheered wildly, though, when Bennett got up and pedaled across the finish line, holding his left arm to his chest.

“For as gnarly as that crashed looked, I know Kyle will be back tomorrow for sure,” Robinson said. “He finished the lap. Not everybody would do that.”

Bennett’s injury couldn’t totally dampen a historic day for BMX.

The crowd began arriving before 8 a.m., crammed into every open space in the venue’s souvenir shop — “Give me BMX anything,” one man draped in a New Zealand flag implored a worker there, who looked back somewhat quizzically — and even the racers acknowledged taking a few seconds to soak in the scene.

“You take a look around and see what it all is, and get a little perspective,” Kintner said. “It helps.”

For the better part of a week, since arriving from their U.S. base, it was mostly fun and games for the American racers.

Bennett broke the pedal off a rickshaw he borrowed while filming a spot for NBC in downtown Beijing. Kintner posed for a photo with famed gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi and watched Usain Bolt win the 100-meter dash, then found herself in an elevator with the U.S. men’s gymnastics team. Day scored some basketball tickets.

“This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and I find that the more experiences you take in, the better you are as a person,” Kintner said. “You can’t miss the games. We saw the 100 meters. How unreal is that? Fastest man alive!”

But on Wednesday, it was all business, especially for Kintner — who uprooted her life for this chance.

She was a BMX champion as a kid, then turned her attention the sport of mountain-cross, a genre of mountain biking where she was a world champion — but when BMX got added to the Olympic program, she came back to the little bike.

And on Wednesday, Kintner couldn’t help but marvel.

“It’s unbelievable,” she said, looking at the flag-waving crowd.

Racers start by navigating a 35-foot, sharply banked ramp, and how well they come off that hill essentially sets up how they’ll do on the rest of the course, which features hazards like steep turns, a 40-foot crevasse for the men to jump and moguls so tightly stacked together that one slip simply destroys momentum for the rest of the run.

There’s no room for error, and having eight riders together in the heats often leads to spills — a lesson Robinson and Bennett learned once again Wednesday.

But they’ll return Thursday, with an eye on that first Olympic BMX podium.

“I’ve cried a bunch because of how much this means to me,” Robinson said. “It’s not preparing anymore. It’s here. I’m here to do it. Either greatness is going to happen, or it’s back to normal life.”

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