It’s an X Games Five-Peat for Garret Reynolds in BMX Freestyle Street

Jun 30, 2012

Written by Bart de Jong

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Garrett Reynolds went into Friday afternoon’s X Games BMX Freestyle Street Finals as the only athlete to ever win BMX Freestyle Street at X Games and succeeded in continuing his dominance. The Toms River, N.J. native claimed his spot as one of the few five-peat winners in X Games history after squeezing out a gold medal final run with a score of 85.00 to beat out Chad Kerley for the top spot.

“I did the same thing I’ve been doing every year, I just went out and did what I love to do,” said a breathless Reynolds after he collapsed in exhaustion following the end of his third and final run.

After a spill off a wall in the second round, Reynolds was determined to pull off a flawless final run in an attempt to surpass Kerley’s high score of 83.00. It was all over after he landed a 540 Barspin Wallride he had missed previously, then nailed a Double-peg 270 onto the chain link fence, rotating his front wheel up and around to land hardway.

Just as his run time was about to expire, Reynolds’ took a tumble as he was coming off a picnic bench obstacle. Despite the fall, the judges deemed his run worthy enough for a score of 43.00 which was enough to surpass Silver-medalist Chad Kerley by two points.

Even after being edged out of first place by a few points, Kerley, a recent high-school graduate was all smiles. “I’m so beyond happy -- I was happy just dropping in on my first run, and it’s such a dream to be able to ride at the X Games. I couldn’t be any happier at how it turned out. I feel like I won. Garrett’s the best on the planet so I feel like I still won,” said a beaming Kerley.

The BMX Freestyle Street course featured enough obstacles to satisfy any street rider’s dream—especially that of third place winner Dakota Roche.

“I wish I could just pull up to this park and ride it every day,” said Roche. Rounding out the podium with a score of 69.00, Roche picked up his second X Games Bronze with a smile.

This year’s course included obstacles like a concrete dinosaur, a “Sir Isaac Newton” quarter-pipe, various rails, picnic tables, chain link fences, and even a water fountain.