“It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans. The fact that this effort will fail does not mean it will not do significant damage to American democracy.”—former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.
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Quote of the Day
“In these United States, when someone loses an election according to the constitutional processes, he is obligated to accept the loss. Otherwise, we live in lawless anarchy. Rejecting anarchy, and accepting the dictates of the Constitution, is no less than what [Sen. Ben Sasse (R)] says: It is ‘what self-government requires.'”—from a Washington Examiner editorial.
I Was a BMX Voyeur
This likely will be a one-off column. It’s not about video poker. For me it’s not even about gambling, although I did make a few bucks betting on it. For me it’s about some kid I’ve known about for 20 years, who lives only a few miles from me, competing in the Rio Olympics in an obscure sport I knew nothing about until recently. It was a damn exciting experience for me and I want to tell you about it. If you want to read about video poker, come back next week.
Mike Fields is vice president at videopoker.com, also known as Action Gaming. Before that he was head of video poker for IGT. I met Mike more than 20 years ago. I was just coming up as a video poker expert. Mike was already established working for a gaming manufacturer. We met at a gaming show — enjoyed talking to each other — and have stayed friends. Mostly business friends, but with a good dose of personal relationship as well. There were fewer than 40 people invited to Bonnie’s and my wedding. Mike Fields was one of them.
I heard about his son, Connor, many times through the years. I met Connor once — with his dad — at a mall shortly before Christmas. A charity my wife was helping asked for donations to give gifts for underprivileged kids and Connor decided that since biking was his passion, he’d like to donate a bicycle. And he did.
For the past several years, Connor Fields has been competing in BMX racing — with BMX standing for bicycle moto-cross. It’s an event for really crazy people. Up to eight cyclists start at the top of a steep eight-meter (26.25-feet) ramp. When the gate drops, they go speeding downhill and are up to about 40 miles per hour in two and a half seconds. Just to make it a little more exciting and dangerous, it’s legal to throw elbows and punches to the head as you jockey for position. Although the cyclists are pedaling throughout the race, the vast majority of their speed is gained in this initial eight-meter descent.
Once they reach the bottom of the ramp, they still have a long way to go even though it is definitely a sprint race. The BMX course has bunches of hills to navigate. The early ones come back-to-back and the cyclists become airborne as they go up one small hill — fly over the next one — and land going downhill. Although they could be going slower and actually go up and down each hill — that’s not a strategy for winning.
The corners of the track are called berms and they are banked so the bikers can take them at speed. Whether you take them high or low depends on how fast you are going and where you are compared to the other riders. Giving a “friendly elbow” to help a competitor go “over the top” of the berm to an off-course grassy landing is part of the game. Before the finish line, there are several low hills, called the rhythm section, which are far enough apart that you need to go up and down each one and jumping from one to the other isn’t a strategy any of the cyclists used at the Olympics.
Tracks are all similar — and all a bit different. Many are dirt. The one at the Olympics had a synthetic surface much like you see on a running track. I’m sure Connor can tell you how the texture of the BMX track is different from the texture of a running track and why, but I can’t.
The entire race takes 35 seconds or so for the winners. A bit longer if you crashed along the way. When one cyclist goes down, often one or more others get tangled up in the mess. The track isn’t all that wide and all the racers are trying to get to the front. Interestingly, if you go down in a BMX race and you can still walk, you pick up your bike and carry it to the finish line.
In most preliminary races, the top four go on to ride in the next round and the slowest four are eliminated. Whether you’re first or fourth in one round affects your position on the track in the next round, but your score doesn’t carry over. For example, even if the fourth place cyclist was a quarter of a second slower than the winner in the quarter-finals, they start off even in the semi-finals time-wise.
There were LOTS of stories about Connor Fields before the Olympics (Google him if you don’t believe this). He was injured earlier in 2016 and couldn’t compete in the Olympic time trials, but because of his skill, he was given a coaches’ exemption and was selected as a member of the five-person U.S. Olympic team (three men, two women). Since he’s a local boy here in Las Vegas, local TV and newspapers mentioned him all the time.
I didn’t get to see any of the races in real time, but I’d read the results every night. On Wednesday, August 17, I checked the results and saw Connor came in fourth place. I was very disappointed. He was really hoping for a medal, which only go three deep, and to go all that way and come up just short was awful.
As I read further, I realized that yes he was in fourth place, but these were individual time trials used for seeding purposes. The top 32 racers moved on to the quarter-finals the next day — and Connor was doing just fine.
On Thursday, August 18, there was blood on the track. Several of the riders went down hard, including one of the pre-race favorites — Joris Daudet from France. http://www.nbcolympics.com/video/bmxers-took-some-hard-hits-quarterfinals
Fields and the other two Americans, Nic Long and Corben Sharrah, survived and would race again Friday. Sixteen riders were left.
On Friday, August 19, the semi-finals got it down to eight riders, and shortly thereafter the finals ended it all. In the finals, which included two Americans — Connor Fields and Nic Long. Both Americans got off to fast starts and about 20 seconds in were in first and second position with Long holding a slight advantage. Connor passed Long, as did one Dutch rider and one Colombian, who passed him in a photo finish, so the Americans ended up with the Gold and near miss for the bronze. http://www.nbcolympics.com/news/team-usas-connor-fields-led-bmx-finals-start-finish-takes-home-gold
On the woman’s side, American Alise Post took home a silver, so it was an excellent showing for Team USA. I’m sure Alise has her own story and it’s every bit as exciting as Connor’s, but I’ve never met her and didn’t follow the women’s races at all.
We’re going to try to get Connor Fields as a guest on the radio show. It isn’t really about gambling, but his dad is a sponsor of the show, and hey, how many Olympic champions have you met? I want to ask him about the final race.
When he and Nic Young were neck and neck with 10 seconds to go, it’s possible Connor knew he was going to win. You know your teammates pretty well and Fields is a better finisher than Young is. But what if it was neck and neck with 3 seconds to go? You and your teammate are both going for the gold — and you felt that a well-timed elbow would push you by your teammate.
If it was for the Olympic gold, would you elbow your teammate?
(I mentioned earlier that I made some money gambling on this. With a friend, I took Connor Fields against the field at 5-1. I risked $10 (which I would have paid if Connor lost) and collected $50 when he won. It probably wasn’t a good bet, odds-wise, but sports are more exciting when you have a little wager on it, and this was pocket-change money between friends. The $50 win is nice, but I’m REALLY happy for Connor and Mike Fields!)