France’s Anne-Caroline Chausson out-pedaled, out-jumped and out-maneuvered the world’s best female BMX riders to win the inaugural Olympic BMX race at the Laoshan cycling venue. The Frenchwoman, who also owns 16 world titles in gravity mountain bike racing, grabbed the biggest single prize of her storied career ahead of compatriot Laetitia le Corguille.

Amerian Jill Kintner crossed the finish line in third to bring the United States its first-ever medal in Olympic BMX.

“It is very emotional, and it is the end of some very hard work,” Chausson said. “This medal is the combination of something I’ve done for many years. I’ve always enjoyed the ride, and it is the realization of my dream.”

The stage was set for an all-star battle between Chausson and Britain’s Shanaze Reade in the finals after both women dominated the three heats of their respective qualifying runs. The stocky Reade is the reigning BMX world champion, and also owns a world title on the track in the team pursuit. The Brit was visibly the fastest woman on the 330-meter track, but proved to have some handling problems, crashing twice before the finals.

Chausson, on the other hand, was flawless in her qualifying runs, riding with a speed and elegance that set her apart from the other 16 women.

In the finals it was Raede who grabbed the hole shot with Chausson close on her heels. The Frenchwoman and Brit distanced themselves from the remaining six riders on the jump-filled straightaway, speeding by the television cameras in a neck-and-neck battle.

After hitting Chausson's rear wheel, Reade hit the deck.

Photo: Graham Watson

But Chausson proved that in BMX handling and finesse tops flat-out speed. In the course’s final left-hand corner the Frenchwoman carved a tight turn that Raede simply could not follow. The Brit ran into Chausson’s rear wheel and crashed. The entire women’s field sped by the Brit, who laid sobbing on the track wondering what might have been.

Officials relegated Raede to last place after the race for running into the Frenchwoman.

“I put everything into training,” a heartbroken Raede told reporters after the race. “I am hurting. I think I broke my hand as well.”

After the race, the Brit hinted to her nation’s press corps that she thought Chausson raced too aggressively in the final corner. The stone-faced Frenchwoman disputed the accusation.

“In BMX you never know where the others are, you sense them, you feel them, but you don’t’ know where they are,” Chausson said. “In that last turn I was certainly not going to give up. I chose a trajectory that wasn’t open, and I was surprised to see her try to go inside. If you hit the back wheel of the person in front of you, it’s not that person who will crash. I believe she made an error. And all the better for the French team.”

The surprise ride of the day came from Kintner, a three-time mountain bike world champ, who came into the Olympics riding with a badly injured meniscus in her knee. The American lacked her usual speed out of the gate, watching the other women surge by her in both qualifying and finals. But in all of her runs Kintner’s conservative starts paid off. In the second heat of qualifying a crash in front of her eliminated three riders from the field. Kintner dodged the wreckage to finish third, which was good enough for the finals.

In the finals Kintner was one of the final women out of the gate, but the American let her rivals make mistakes on the jump-filled course. Kintner pulled her way up to fourth by the penultimate turn, and Reade’s crash opened the door for the American to medal.

“Everyone is going as hard as they can into the first turn and no one is letting down,” Kintner said. “There’s not a whole lot of room in the turn for everyone. You never know what is going to happen in BMX, which is the beauty of the sport.”