Connor Fields | Tokyo 2020 Olympic Profile

Team USA BMX racer Connor Fields explains why his gold medal run in 2016 takes pressure off of him to win again in 2020.

Video transcript

CONNOR FIELDS: My name is Connor Fields. I'm 28 years old from Las Vegas, Nevada. Part of what drew me to BMX originally was that every course, is different, every track is different, every time you race is going to be completely different. I guess it's the opposite of track and field or swimming, where it's very consistent. It's always kind of the same.

So I've written so many different jumps and so many different courses over my life that I have a pretty good ability to look at a course and kind of dissect it and figure out what is going to be the fastest way through a particular section or obstacle. And then we are given time on the course before race day to try things out.

So sometimes we use technology such as Dartfish, where you can try multiple different options through one section, and then you put them up next to each other to compare and see which one is faster. But it is a bit of trial and error, and as a young rider, when you're a kid, you go through that trial with a lot of error when you're learning how to judge things and how far maybe to jump or if you should stay on the ground or not.

And you take your knocks. You crash a little bit or you make some mistakes, but that's just part of the process that we have to go through when we're learning how to do it. For whatever reason, people think that there's an added pressure because you are the past gold medalist. For me, I actually think it goes the other way. I feel in a sense, less pressure because I've already done it.

So now I just have this bonus opportunity to go for it again, but it's not like somebody is going to come into my house and take my gold medal away from me. I will always be an Olympic champion. But the fact that I have an opportunity to go for it again, that's exciting to me, but if anything, I actually feel less pressure because I've already gone.