Olympic champion Charlotte Worthington is excited to judge the ‘craziness’ of Red Bull Featured in Manchester Central – as fans should expect ‘never been done before’ tricks.
The Mancunian is a two time Olympian who has the honour of being the first Olympic champion in the Freestyle event has taken a short break from competing to try the other side of the track as a judge.
Red Bull Featured is a new BMX competition where 16 male and female riders have been invited to show-off their skills on four different huge structures with no penalisation for failure to land a trick.
Why riders want to take part in the event is clear to Charlotte.
“I mean Kieran jumps over a bus that’s how creative you can get,” she laughed.
“For riders it’s big risk, big reward, and everyone wants to get their name on a world first.
“There are no other ramps in the world that are as big as this, and that just opens a door of opportunity for craziness to go down.”
Knowledge of the sport isn’t necessarily needed as fans will be treated to a stunning spectacle of biking.
She said: “BMX is a very visual sport, you don’t need to know the ins and outs to know that if someone’s upside down, then that’s crazy.”
The event is packed with some of the best talent in the sport with Great Britain’s Jude Jones and Paris 2024 silver medal winner Kieran Riley set to feature.
Worthington also heaped praise on US rider Hannah Roberts as a ‘leader’ of the sport and that you can expect her to have something ‘brand new up her sleeve’.
This has also been highlighted as an occasion for the women’s riders to showcase their abilities as it is a slightly younger sport compared to the men’s side.
Worthington explained: “The women’s sport is progressing faster than the men’s because there’s a much longer way to catch up and the men have already laid the foundations of where BMX can go.
“It’s a huge opportunity for them to think differently and push the boundaries of what they can do on a bike.”
On who she would tip to be the future of the women’s sport in the UK, she earmarked Esme Morris, Holly Pipe, and Sasha Pardoe as ‘forces to be reckoned with’ once they get their chance.
As she described 13-year-old Morris as already ‘biting at the heels of everyone’.
The Olympian is one of four judges for the event and explained how the experience of analysing from behind the desk differs from competing.
Worthington said: “When you’re on the other side of the fence, you can get quite emotional and you are thinking, ‘what are the judges going to want?’”
“Now I am a judge and you realize it’s very opinionated and objective.”
But what are they looking out for when riders tackle these immense ramps?
“We want something that’s really big, really dangerous, but also technically difficult,” she said.
“Personally, I always love something outside of the box or combining different tricks is what really catches my eye.”
Originally from the city, Charlotte is “super proud” to see her home getting all the promotion ahead of an event which could inspire the next generation.
“Cycling and Manchester just go together in a sentence,” she exclaimed.
“We’ve seen so many young kids pick up bikes because they’ve been in awe of the amazing tricks they’re seeing.”
Los Angeles 2028 is the next host of the Olympics with the Freestyle event set to continue after two successful runs.
However, with two mixed experiences in the games herself, the 28-year-old is taking some time out before she makes a final decision on whether to compete.
She said: “The first one was perfect but the second one was the opposite, everything went wrong.
“I hadn’t given myself that time for a while so in the next year or two I’m going to do some competing and see how it goes.
“After this time then I’ll be in a place where I can make a decision because if I’m going I don’t want to be one foot in and one foot out.”
BMX to her is not about winning but having the freedom to try new tricks and be as creative as possible with self-expression key to the sports appeal.
“We wouldn’t have BMX freestyle without self-expression,” she said.
“Otherwise we’d all just be robots on bikes doing the same thing, everyone needs to have their own style and that’s very important in this sport.”
Creativity is integral to success in this event and Charlotte shared her final piece of advice to the riders competing on Saturday night.
She said: “It’s going to be very easy to see what other people are doing and to follow them but think outside the box and be brave enough to go for it.”
Main image: Charlotte Worthington celebrates with gold medal at Tokyo 2020 (from Team GB YouTube)
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