Mike Day's mind wanders when he spends hours training on his BMX bike, daydreaming of how 'The Star-Spangled Banner' will sound at a medal ceremony in Beijing.
Jill Kintner blocks the pain that sometimes shoots through her shredded knee when she pedals, soothed by the lure of Olympic gold.
For years, Day and Kintner and everyone else in their sport has been largely anonymous, invisible on grander athletic scales.
Not anymore.
BMX, the genre of cycling typically equated with 10-year-olds popping wheelies in a driveway or sprinting over a little jump built in the backyard, is all grown up. It will be an Olympic sport for the first time this summer.
It's a move that will bring in new faces to invigorate the games - in much the same way as adding snowboarding to the winter line-up - and give legitimacy to the athletes who pedal those little bikes competitively all over the world.
"It's amazing to be able to compete for a living, but I don't think that's our main victory in this," said American Donny Robinson, the world's top-ranked BMX racer.
"Having BMX in the Olympics allows us to have our sport be considered a big-time deal. We aren't punk kids that tear up shopping centres. This is our passion and our whole lives - and now we have the chance to show what we can do on the biggest athletic stage ever."
This isn't the freestyle, folks-riding-in-a-halfpipe type of BMX. It's the traditional version of the sport; eight riders in a heat, descending from a giant start ramp and then jostling through bumps, jumps, banked turns and long straightaways.
Spills will happen, and injuries are common as riders combine speed, power and fearlessness. In other words, it's just what young people want.
"Like most kids you start out riding your bike for fun," said Kintner, who will race in Beijing despite a torn knee ligament.
"You know, it is something any kid can do and is accessible for so many people. As it gets more competitive it becomes addictive.
Day, Robinson and former world champion Kyle Bennett will make up the US men's roster; Kintner is the lone woman racing BMX for the Americans, who have been among the sport's elite since its invention.
Even though the US has long been a BMX powerhouse, those four aren't quite medal certainties. Australia, Latvia and the Netherlands have strong men's programs; New Zealand, France and Britain boast serious medal hopefuls in the women's race.
BMX, invented 40 years ago or so in California, has gone global.
"It isn't just important for me," said Shanaze Reade, the British women's BMX gold-medal hopeful. "It's also important for the sport of BMX racing to get the recognition it deserves, to be an Olympic sport." So in August, it will be on display alongside the other cycling disciplines - road, mountain and track.
An exact replica of the Beijing course sits outside the BMX training compound in Chula Vista, California, meaning the Americans have done thousands of laps to get perfect timing down for what awaits them in China.
The thinking is clear: They'll have a huge edge over the rest of the world, in that race for Olympic gold and all the endorsement deals and newfound fame that would surely come with a sparkling medal. "The money is coming a lot more into the sport. But I've never done it for the money," Bennett said. "I started when I was seven because I just loved to ride my bike around and catch air."
Soon, he and the rest of the world's best will be catching Beijing air.
* AP
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Results:
Men's wheelchair 800m T34: 1. Walid Ktila (TUN) 1.44.79; 2. Mohammed Al Hammadi (UAE) 1.45.88; 3. Isaac Towers (GBR) 1.46.46.
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
The more serious side of specialty coffee
While the taste of beans and freshness of roast is paramount to the specialty coffee scene, so is sustainability and workers’ rights.
The bulk of genuine specialty coffee companies aim to improve on these elements in every stage of production via direct relationships with farmers. For instance, Mokha 1450 on Al Wasl Road strives to work predominantly with women-owned and -operated coffee organisations, including female farmers in the Sabree mountains of Yemen.
Because, as the boutique’s owner, Garfield Kerr, points out: “women represent over 90 per cent of the coffee value chain, but are woefully underrepresented in less than 10 per cent of ownership and management throughout the global coffee industry.”
One of the UAE’s largest suppliers of green (meaning not-yet-roasted) beans, Raw Coffee, is a founding member of the Partnership of Gender Equity, which aims to empower female coffee farmers and harvesters.
Also, globally, many companies have found the perfect way to recycle old coffee grounds: they create the perfect fertile soil in which to grow mushrooms.
The Bio
Hometown: Bogota, Colombia
Favourite place to relax in UAE: the desert around Al Mleiha in Sharjah or the eastern mangroves in Abu Dhabi
The one book everyone should read: 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It will make your mind fly
Favourite documentary: Chasing Coral by Jeff Orlowski. It's a good reality check about one of the most valued ecosystems for humanity
The Brutalist
Director: Brady Corbet
Stars: Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Joe Alwyn
Rating: 3.5/5
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Election pledges on migration
CDU: "Now is the time to control the German borders and enforce strict border rejections"
SPD: "Border closures and blanket rejections at internal borders contradict the spirit of a common area of freedom"
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
