Eight riders will compete in this weekend’s USA Cycling BMX Olympic Trials event, on Saturday at the United States Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California.

With the overall winner of the event earning an automatic nomination to the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team, the competitors include: Tyler Brown (San Clemente, Calif.), Danny Calaug (Chino, Calif.), Steven Cisar (Altadena, Calif.), Mike Day (Santa Clarita, Calif.), Kristopher Fox (Phelan, Calif.), Bubba Harris (Goodyear, Ariz.), David Herman (Wheat Ridge, Colo.) and Donny Robinson (Napa, Calif.).

Following the 2008 UCI BMX World Championships last weekend, USA Cycling selected its Long Team – a list of athletes eligible to represent the United States at the 2008 Olympic Games. In addition to the eight aforementioned competitors, Kyle Bennett (Conroe, Texas) and Randy Stumpfhauser (Sanger, Calif.), were also nominated to the Long Team, but neither will compete at the 2008 U.S. Olympic Team Trials. Bennett has already secured an automatic nomination to the Olympic Team as the overall leader of the 2008 USA Cycling BMX Rankings, while Stumpfhauser declined his nomination.

Olympians: BMX makes its debut at the Beijing Games.

Photo: Casey B. Gibson

Robinson (2nd), Day (3rd) and Cisar (4th) all earned automatic nominations to the Long Team and invitations to the Olympic Team Trials by virtue of their top five ranking in the final standings of the 2008 USA Cycling BMX Rankings. Since Stumpfhauser (5th) declined his nomination, Calaug (6th) then received an automatic bid as the next athlete in the rankings.

Brown, Fox, Herman and Harris were all discretionary nominations to the Long Team and were extended invitations to the Olympic Team Trials based on various factors, including UCI BMX Supercross World Cup results, USA Cycling BMX Rankings, podium finishes and recent performance trends.

Despite suffering a mid-season injury, Brown is one of only six Americans to qualify for a Supercross final this season and placed fourth at the opening round in Madrid last February.

The youngest invitee at 19 years of age, Fox qualified for the semifinals of the season’s third Supercross last month in Copenhagen.

Herman is one of only two Americans to win a Supercross this season with a victory at the second round in Adelaide, Australia last April. He is also one of only two U.S. riders to score points in all three 2008 Supercross events thus far.

A world champion in 2005, Harris has missed much of the last two seasons because of injury but has shown he’s consistently returning to form with a pair of top-ten finishes in the time trial qualifiers of Supercross races this season. He also advanced to the semifinals at the Adelaide Supercross.

List of Competitors:

Tyler Brown (San Clemente, Calif.)
Danny Calaug (Chino, Calif.)
Steven Cisar (Altadena, Calif.)
Mike Day (Santa Clarita, Calif.)
Kristopher Fox (Phelan, Calif.)
Bubba Harris (Goodyear, Ariz.)
David Herman (Wheat Ridge, Colo.)
Donny Robinson (Napa, Calif.).