ST. CLOUD -- A sport centered around balance, concentration and speed will be in the summer Olympics.

BMX is a sport for boys and girls of all ages and can be found right here in St. Cloud.

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For 16 years Mark Post has been running Pineview Park BMX in St. Cloud. His daughter, Alise Post will be competing in Rio in the summer Olympics.

 

"We have them as young as one and a half on the strider bikes (the balance bikes) and we go all the way up to 60 some [years old]."

Since the sport is co-ed this makes it a little easier for busy parents juggling schedules.

"One of the unique things is as in our family, Alise was 6-years-old when she started and our son was 14-years-old and we could go to the same place for them to compete."

Besides learning BMX techniques such as balancing the bike through different areas of the track, racers learn life long lessons in the sport.

"They learn sportsmanship, they'll crash with each other, get up, shake hands and move on. It's a physical sport, BMX is a contact sport."

The rules are simple, whoever crosses the finish line first wins the race but racers can also earn points during each race. The more the races and series a racer competes in the more points they'll receive.

Post says racers can get points at the district (local) level, state level and national level races. It'll take more than points for a racer to get into the Olympics though.

"They're actually gauged on a supercross track, that's the main factor in who goes to the Olympics - the supercross races. It's an 8 meter starting hill and around a 40 foot first jump."  

Post says Alise and her fiance have been practicing for months and can't wait to compete in Rio.

"Her and her fiance, Sam Willoughby, who is from Australia and won the silver medal in 2008 and of course she made semi's [in 2012] but didn't get out of there without a crash and their both looking to improve on that. Sam only has one place to go, a gold medal and Alise wants to be on the podium and of course her goal is gold."

Alise is currently ranked 3rd in the world and has six consecutive American titles. Alise will be competing this Wednesday, August 17.

WJON videographer, Rebecca David contributed to this story.

Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
Chrissy Gaetke, WJON
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