Kieran Reilly secures Paris 2024 Olympics silver for Great Britain in BMX freestyle
Gateshead-born Reilly started riding BMX bikes aged nine, when he would venture down to the local skatepark and experiment with daring tricks and flips.
After leaving school, he spent three years working as a joiner but would still take his bike to the skatepark and practice, with a career as a professional BMX rider his true ambition.
Since turning professional in 2020, Reilly’s desire to break fresh ground for himself and the sport by trialling new tricks has seen him shoot to the top of BMX freestyle.
A video of him becoming the first person to ever land the triple flair – three backflips with a 180 degree rotation – in 2022 circulated on social media and laid the foundation for what would be a whirlwind few years.
A silver at the European Championships led to European Games gold in 2023 and victory at the World Championships in Glasgow the same year.
He has now added Olympic silver to that collection after two intricate routines delivered under immense pressure in the oppressive Paris heat.
Reilly had watched Tokyo 2020 champion Logan Martin of Australia and the United States’ Marcus Christopher crash out in an extraordinary final which saw each rider increase the difficulty and risk from qualifying.
Easily recognised by what has become his trademark mullet trailing from the back of his helmet, the Briton oozed composure to produce another technical run but was unable to sway the judges enough to displace Argentine Torres Gil, whose high-difficulty first run was enough to see him top the podium.
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