The Thrilling World of BMX: A Journey from Its Origins to Today

BMX has come a long way from the kids copying motocross riders on dirt tracks in 1970s California. What started as grassroots rebellion — no tracks, no rules, just bikes and hills — is now an Olympic sport watched by millions.

I'm Brad Bellette , founder of Ride Together Australia, and that journey from grassroots to global matters to everything we do.

The sport grew from the bottom up. No corporate backing. No stadium. Just communities of riders who built their own tracks, ran their own clubs, and created something that outlasted every trend cycling has seen since. By the time BMX hit the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a demonstration sport and became fully medal-eligible in Beijing 2008, it had already been shaped by decades of grassroots participation.

In Australia, BMX's growth followed the same pattern. Local clubs, volunteer committees, parents pushing wheelbarrows to maintain the track. The Red Centre BMX Club in Alice Springs — where I've served as Club President — was built by exactly that kind of effort. Riders and families who showed up every week because they loved the sport, not because anyone handed it to them.

Today, BMX racing in Australia is governed and developed by AusCycling , the national body responsible for all cycling disciplines. AusCycling oversees track standards, accredits coaches, runs the national competition calendar, and develops pathways from grassroots club racing right through to international representation. It's the structure that turns a Friday night moto into a pathway to the world stage.

Today, BMX racing is one of the most technically sophisticated cycling disciplines in the world. Purpose-built tracks, UCI-compliant standards, electronic timing systems, international competition circuits. The sport has professionalised without losing its soul — because at the bottom of every elite competition, there's still a Friday night race somewhere with a kid doing their first moto, terrified and grinning.

But that Friday night race costs money to get to. The coaching that helps that kid develop costs money. The right-sized bike costs money.

For families in regional and remote Australia, those costs are the difference between participating and watching from the outside.

BMX went from a dirt hill in California to the Olympic stage. The next great chapter of the sport should include every rider in this country — wherever they live.

Ride Together is working to make that happen — by funding coaching access, competition entry, and equipment for riders who'd otherwise be left behind.