On the way to Beijing
Michal Prokop, as the company rider of the Czech trademark of Author bikes, brought himself to the attention of sports public particularly thanks to his dominant position in fourcross of mountain bikes, where he has already acquired all accessible tittles and he defended them all as well. As the double World Champion, double European Champion, and double winner of the 4X World Cup Michal Prokop belongs
among the few exceptional Czech sportsmen, in the case of whom the one of us may afford to consider any other placing except win in the top world competition as something surprising. Besides this, Michal Prokop unlike most of his other competitors devotes himself equally to two related, but still different disciplines!
Immediately after BMX Racing was incorporated in the program of Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing the historically most successful Czech BMX rider together with his coach and manager agreed a racing and training program, which prefers BMX to some other fourcross events in accordance with the approaching
date of Olympic Games. At the short break before beginning of the Olympic season, which starts already in December of this year, and considering the large number of nomination races concentrated in five months, we can see Michal on 4X tracks only exceptionally.

BMX Racing arose at the turn of the sixties and the seventieth in USA and it got to the Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1984. Thousands of riders participated in races under supervision of Svazarm and CSTV. The hit at that time was a simple bicycle called Velamos BMX 20, which contributed to the mass spread of BMX among the youth. After the Svazarm structures fell apart the Czech bicross underwent a not very happy development and it significantly took a back seat. However, the ten thousands visits at world championships
in various parts of the world show that it is a very attractive sport for spectators.

And what says Michal Prokop about BMX? „The competition in BMX Racing is even keener than in fourcross.
Premiere of BMX in Olympic Games is my long-lasting goal, but the most important thing will be to get there.
The thing is that according to the current system not individuals but countries are nominated. It means that
the three best riders of a certain country score in the rank of nations and only based on the position in it the
national federation may nominate a certain number of riders. The better result the country achieves, the
larger number of its riders it may send out to the Olympic Games. The country may achieve points in world
championships, in World Cup, and in continental championships. For the time being only I am scoring on
behalf of the Czech Republic permanently, because there are not much riders with real chance to score and
therefore it will be very difficult to defend the eighth position at least in the ranking of nations ensuring two
places in Beijing. My goal is clear: to get so many points to be able to nominate to the Olympic Games to be
able to bring some medal!”

Just one year before the Olympic ride Michal Prokop acquired the first experience with the local track at the
second of the BMX SX World Cup races: „The area is beautiful and the Olympic Games could start there
already today, but the track is not my cup of tea yet. It does not suit me at all and I hope they will still work
on it. The jumps on the first straight are too short; it’s very difficult to subdue them. On the second straight
the jumps are very big, but the speed is slower. Obviously, I am not content with the result, but on the
other hand, I am glad that I could see it here and I hope I will be able to rectify the result in the next
year…”

The complete story (in Czech) you can find here: http://www.mtbs.cz/Zavody/supercross07-bmx-beijing_cl.html

photos: Jan Nemec (mtbs.cz)