BMX riders compete in Redmond races

Hundreds of BMX riders took to the Hooker Creek Event Center at the Deschutes County Fairgrounds this weekend.

It was the return of the BMX Northwest National race.

Nearly 300 competitors got on their bikes and flipped over dirt jumps as they tried to outrace each other.

BMX is short for bicycle motocross racing.

It recently became an Olympic sport, starting in the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and continued in the London Olympics last year.

“We are really getting mainstream exposure now because it’s an Olympic sport,” Brad Halin, senior track director for BMX USA, said Sunday. “The growth has been phenomenal because of that.”

The sport originated after kids were trying to emulate their motocross heroes on their bikes outdoors, and it evolved into the sport it is today .

There are 13 BMX USA tracks in Oregon– two of them in Bend and Redmond.