At the Tokyo Olympics, men's BMX freestyle cycling, 19-year-old Rimu Nakamura showed a mistake-free run that combined big skills in the second time, but did not reach the medal in 5th place at 85.10.

Overcoming the greatest crisis of life

Rimu Nakamura's journey to the Tokyo Olympics was not so straightforward that he said, "It was the biggest crisis in my life."



Nakamura started the competition at the age of 3 due to the influence of his father who was a BMX player. It has a long flight time and a high jump, and it is a series of new techniques that only Nakamura can do, such as a big technique that interweaves up to 5 movements such as turning the steering wheel while rotating the bicycle with one rotation jump. It is a world-class player to develop.



In 2019, at the age of 17, he became the first Japanese player to win the World Cup annually and became known as a gold medal candidate for the Tokyo Olympics.



In January last year, the company to which he belonged built a dedicated indoor practice field with a total construction cost of 400 million yen to win medals. In addition to the world-standard standards, we were able to install nine cameras to analyze images, and we were steadily preparing for the tournament even at Corona.



However, a big test will come last September. He failed to land the jump during practice and broke his left heel, and while it was less than 10 months before the Olympics, he was diagnosed as having a total recovery of 6 months.



Nakamura described the four months when he couldn't ride a bicycle at all as "the greatest crisis in his life." Still, Nakamura did not give up.


During this period, we worked on thorough training in a way that did not put a burden on the legs. This is to give you the physical strength to perform a big skill even in the latter half of the one-minute performance.



Then, in January, I resumed my bicycle practice, and in June, I participated in the World Championships in France and returned to 7th place.


However, dissatisfied with this result, Nakamura worked hard to learn two new techniques even though he had only one month left until the Tokyo Games.



Before the tournament, he dyed his hair golden and faced with a strong determination to "become the first champion" yesterday's seeding run.



"The more you show it in the final, the higher the evaluation," he dared to seal the two new techniques.



In the final, Nakamura boldly challenged the technique that no one in the world has done yet, the first time and the second time. Although it was not a success, we delivered to the fans through the video a figure that seems to be Nakamura who continues to challenge.



The result did not reach the medal in 5th place, but Nakamura's appearance on this big stage after overcoming the "greatest crisis in life" should have reached the younger generation aiming for the future Olympics. ..