The road and mountain bike races are well underway at the 2024 Paris Olympics, as has the indoor track cycling, but today the BMX Cycling Freestyle takes centre stage with three medals on the line in both the men's and women's Park Finals from La Concorde 2 in France's capital.
Today's Park Finals will see only the second round of medals given out for BMX Cycling at the Olympics, after the variant of the sport made a successful debut at the delayed 2020 Games in Tokyo. US star Hannah Roberts won silver three years ago, and will be looking to go one better this time around.
Both the men's and women's freestyle competitions saw 12 qualifiers battle it out for a spot in the final, with only the top nine scorers making it through. As well as Roberts, Perris Benegas will have the USA behind her in the women's decider, while in the men's final, Justin Dowell and Marcus Christopher will both be hoping to bring a medal or two home.
The format for the final sticks largely to the same basis as yesterday's qualifiers – each rider gets two runs to accumulate as high a score as possible within 60 seconds of fast-paced freestyle cycling. Five judges decide scores between zero and 99.99, which are then averaged and totted up to rank the nine final competitors.
We're all set to watch the world's best BMX freestyle cyclists go head-to-head on the ramps and jumps of La Concorde 2, and to follow all the action Stateside, The Sporting News has all your TV, live streaming and scheduling details for both the men's and women's finals.
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When are the 2024 Olympics BMX Cycling Finals?
The first of the two BMX Freestyle deciders at the 2024 Olympic Games to get underway is the Women's Park Final, taking place from La Concorde 2 in Paris, France on Wednesday, July 31 . Home favourite Laury Perez is first up, and her final run begins at 1:10 p.m. local time (CEST).
Following the conclusion and award ceremony after the nine women's competitors have received their scores, the Men's Park Final will take place on the same day, from the same location. Latvia's Ernests Zebolds is up first, with his run starting at 2:44 p.m. local time (CEST).
Here's how the starting point of the women's road race translates across the US:
| US Time Zone | Date | Women's Final – Start Time | Men's Final – Start Time |
| Eastern Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 7:10 a.m. | 8:44 a.m. |
| Central Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 6:10 a.m. | 7:44 a.m. |
| Mountain Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 5:10 a.m. | 6:44 a.m. |
| Pacific Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 4:10 a.m. | 5:44 a.m. |
| Alaskan Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 3:10 a.m. | 4:44 a.m. |
| Hawaii Time | Wednesday, July 31 | 1:10 a.m. | 2:44 a.m. |
How to watch 2024 Olympics BMX Cycling Finals: TV channel, Live stream
- TV Channel: USA Network, NBC (delay)
- Live Stream: Fubo , Peacock
USA Network is the only place you'll be able to catch the action from both the men's and women's BMX Freestyle Park Finals this morning, with a full broadcast as well as build-up and analysis following the awarding of the medals. NBC's Late Night show will also be showing a re-run of the action and a highlights package the following evening.
If you'd prefer to stream the action though given the early start times for US viewers, Fubo have you covered – they're showing all 18 competitors' runs at La Concorde 2 both live and on catch-up, utilising access to USA's feed and offering a free trial to new subscribers. Peacock are also providing streaming coverage live and on catch-up too.
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Who is competing in the 2024 Olympics BMX Cycling Finals?
With nine riders in each of the men's and women's competitions qualifying for the 2024 Park Finals, there's very little room for error, particularly if any of the US's four contenders want to return home with a medal.
The 12-rider qualifiers on Tuesday, June 30 helped to determine both the identity of the finalists and the running order, with the respective highest average scorers in yesterday's heats starting last, and the lowest scorers going first.
Unlike in the qualifiers, in which the riders' two runs each are averaged, the scores in the final are determined by the best of each rider's two runs at La Concorde 2 – this was certainly handy for Australia's Logan Martin in 2021, who won gold with a 93.30 score on his first run in Tokyo after his second attempt scored just 41.40!
Martin and Britain's top qualifier Kieran Reilly will be the biggest competition for US riders Dowell and Christopher in today's Men's Park Final. Roberts, meanwhile, will start last in the order as the highest-scoring qualifier and doesn't have Briton Charlotte Worthington – who beat her to gold in Tokyo – to worry about this time!
| Start Order | Women's Finalist (Country) | Men's Finalist (Country) |
| 1 | Laury Perez (France) | Ernests Zebolds (Latvia) |
| 2 | Natalya Diehm (Australia) | Gustavo Batista de Oliveira (Brazil) |
| 3 | Macarena Perez Grasset (Chile) | Jose Torres Gil (Argentina) |
| 4 | Saray Villegas Serna (Colombia) | Rimu Nakamura (Japan) |
| 5 | Iveta Miculycova (Czechia) | Anthony Jeanjean (France) |
| 6 | Perris Benegas (USA) | Justin Dowell (USA) |
| 7 | Jiaqi Sun (China) | Logan Martin (Australia) |
| 8 | Yawen Deng (China) | Marcus Christopher (USA) |
| 9 | Hannah Roberts (USA) | Kieran Reilly (Great Britain) |
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