Paris Olympics 2024: China's Yawen Deng takes gold in women's BMX freestyle

The 18-year-old finishes on top of the podium in her Olympic debut.

Yawen Deng (CHN) won the Women’s BMX Freestyle Park gold in style at La Concorde at Paris Olympics 2024. Her score of 92.60 put her ahead of silver medalist Perris Benegas (USA) on 90.70 points and bronze medalist Natalya Diehm (AUS) on 88.80 points.

Each rider had two 60-second runs, from which the best of the two scores counted. With Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Charlotte Worthington (GBR) not progressing through Tuesday’s qualification stage, the competitors and spectators knew that a new Olympic Champion would be crowned.

Run 1: Yawen Deng leads after crash-strewn first runs 

Natalya Diehm (AUS) went top with the early lead, scoring 88.80, Chile’s Macarena Pérez Grasset went close with 83.80 and 18-year-old Iveta Miculyčová (CZE) posted 82.3. Queensaray Villegas Serna (COL) crashed, scoring 64.80. France’s Laury Perez fell, scoring 2.80. USA’s Perris Benegas put down the pace with the big transfers, aiming to improve on Tokyo’s fourth place, with 83.4.

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China’s Jiaqi Sun aimed high, with an impressive run but crashed near the end, scoring 70.80. Her 18-year-old compatriot Yawen Deng followed with a triple barspin, hitting a huge 92.5 to lead.

Last rider to drop was the highest scoring qualifier, USA’s five-time UCI World Champion Hannah Roberts, who crashed in warm-up and crashed again, scoring 70.00 and leaving herself a lot to do in run 2. 

Run 2: Deng is untouchable

Perez recovered to post a 64.3 before Diehm, in silver medal position, came out with a front-flip but her score of 87.70 did not improve on run 1. 

Pérez Grasset’s 84.55 improved on her run 1 score and kept her in provisional bronze medal position. Villegas Serna’s 88.0 improved from 8th to provisional 3rd, overtaking Pérez Grasset. Miculyčová was disappointed with an early foot-down, and could not continue.

Perris Benegas went shooting for a medal and her 90.70 left her in provisional silver medal position with three riders to go, Jiaqi Sun’s crash meant she could not improve on her score.

Yawen Deng came in confident, knowing she held pole position. Her 92.60 put marginally more pressure on Hannah Robert but it was all over for the American almost before it began as she made an early mistake.

A satisfied Deng gained confidence as the competition progressed: “After the first run, I was on top and that gave me more confidence to level up my performance in the second run,” she said after her victory. “If you do every move well, your final score can’t be bad.”

The new Olympic Champion refuses to be drawn on the possibility of defending her title at the Los Angeles 2028 Games: “I haven’t thought that far yet. I just want to compete well in each race and take it one race at a time.”

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