The crash took place on the first lap of his qualifying heat. Fields was in second place in a tight pack of riders when his front wheel caught the back wheel of the leader, France’s Romain Mahieu, and crashed headfirst onto the ground.
US BMX Racer Connor Fields Carried Off on Stretcher After Olympics Crash
U.S. BMX racer and reigning Olympic gold medalist Connor Fields was carried off on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance after a hard crash at the Tokyo Games on Friday.
The 28-year-old from Las Vegas was competing in the semifinals when he landed hard off a jump heading into the first turn in the third run. He slammed into a turn and was struck by two other riders, Twan van Gendt of the Netherlands and Sylvain Andre of France, before being attended to by medical personnel.
TOKYO
The Tokyo Games got their first swimming individual world record and a fast start to the track competition on Day 7 of the Olympics.
Tatjana Schoenmaker of South Africa won the women’s 200-meter breaststroke with a time of 2 minutes, 18.95 seconds, breaking the mark of 2:19.11 set by Rikke Moller Pedersen of Denmark at the 2013 world championships in Barcelona.
The United States claimed the other two medals. Lilly King set a blistering pace early in the race and held on for a silver in 2:19.92. Annie Lazor grabbed bronze in 2:20.84.
“I wasn’t expecting that at all,” said Schoenmaker, who added to her silver in the 100 breast. ”It couldn’t have been a better race. It still just doesn’t sink in, maybe one day.”
Shriever, Kimmann win BMX racing gold; 2 stretchered off Today 01:32 pm JST Today | 03:15 pm JST TOKYO
Niek Kimmann kicked off his second Olympics by colliding with a race steward who had wandered onto the track during training.
The Dutch rider spent the next three days doing everything he could to rehabilitate a knee injured in the crash, not knowing if he could be able to make it to the starting gate.
Kimmann was eventually cleared to ride and not even a sore knee could slow him down.
Kimmann shook off the freak accident to give the Netherlands its first gold medal in BMX racing, edging Kye Whyte of Britain at the finish line Friday at the Tokyo Olympics.