Going for Gold

Red Bull Mountaincross rider Jill Kintner is going from the Mountainbike back to BMX to chase the 2008 Olympics, where the sport makes its debut.

When it was announced that BMX would be part of the 2008 summer Olympics in Beijing, Jill Kintner had a dilemma: Should she jump back on the 20-inch wheels and go for gold, or stick with Mountaincross (also known as 4 cross or 4X), the mountain bike discipline she’s dominated hands-down since 2005?

Kintner first had an impressive career as a BMX racer, with over 70 career wins including the NBL National Series pro title and ABA World Championship in 2002. But that was before she discovered Mountaincross, then a relatively new mountain bike discipline in which four athletes charge down a slope head-to-head, trying to out-think each other on a gnarly, obstacle-ridden course—mountain bike’s version of Boardercross.

In 2007, Kintner won the UCI 4X World Championship title – her third in a row. It was time to decide whether to remain dedicated to 4X and defend her title, or jump back to her roots to achieve the only goal she has left in BMX: earning an Olympic medal. Thanks in part to a comprehensive training and support plan put together by Red Bull and GT bicycles, and an invite to live at the Olympic Training Center (OTC) in San Diego, Kintner decided to throw it all into BMX for 2008.

BMX – THE START OF A DREAM
Growing up in Washington State, Kintner played at an elite level in soccer and tennis, but bikes were always part of the picture, too. “I was the only girl in our neighborhood, and I would go on these little bike missions with the boys,” she remembers. By the time she turned eight, racing had become an outlet for Kintner’s competitiveness. “We had a BMX track ten minutes from our house, so it was a pretty accessible thing for my family to do together,” she explains. “Eventually my brother and I became full-fledged racers on the National circuit.”

Kintner started competing with pros at age 14. She graduated high school when she was 17 and moved around the country to race full-time while also studying fine arts and design. “After a while, I’d accomplished most of my goals with BMX, and held most every title,” Kintner says matter-of-factly, “including Nationals and the World Championships. But ever since I was a kid, I had this vision of racing a mountain bike. It always seemed like the most challenging and rewarding type of bike riding – the kind that keeps you scared and pushes the limits.”

MOUNTAINCROSS DOMINANCE
Kintner made the switch from BMX to 4X in 2002, and after financing her own World Cup chase, she signed with GT Bicycles in 2005. Kintner is now the undisputed queen of Mountaincross. She’s the four-time U.S. National Champion and three-time UCI World Champion; she won almost every race she entered in the summer 2006 season, including four out of five World Cup events. In 2005, she won three major titles in three weeks: UCI World Champion, World Cup Champion, and U.S. National Champion.

When GT signed Kintner, they knew her primary value in 4X, but they were also looking ahead to the role she could play in the 2008 Olympics. Kintner wasn't so sure; her passion for 4X was tough to shelve. She was also concerned about the level of support she'd receive; there was no U.S. National BMX training program back when she was racing, and she knew that if she were to make a bid for the Olympics, everything had to be 100%. "USA Cycling, the Olympic Training Center, and GT have put a lot of resources into it now, but Red Bull's performance plan support was the deciding factor," she says. "I have a coach, I have a plan, we have an athletic trainer and all this staff to support us. We now have a much different approach to a sport that really hasn't been developed."

RE-LEARNING CURVE
One of the toughest challenges Kintner faces is the difference in the bikes. The BMX bike, with 20-inch wheels, handles completely differently than a 26-inch mountain bike with full suspension. "It's easy to switch from a BMX bike to a mountain bike, but it's tricky to go the other way," she points out. "Mountain bikes are more stable and roll smoother; you can hit jumps without being perfect, but on a BMX bike you have to be perfect."

The approach is different, as well. In BMX, it's all about explosive acceleration. Most of Kintner's previous training regimen consisted of simply riding, honing her bike-handling skills in the saddle rather than the gym. She now has more gym time and lots of short-burst sprinting drills to contend with, to keep ther training very sports specific. She doesn't see it as an obstacle, though, only as more motivation. “I’m really competitive, and I put my heart into everything,” she claims. “If I'm going to do something, I want to be the best at it.”

Kintner is one of four Olympic BMX hopefuls living at the OTC in San Diego; the U.S. will send at least one female rider to Beijing, possibly two, depending on the points the riders in each nation earn over a year of UCI-sanctioned races leading up to the Olympics. She says that living and training with them while competing for one or two coveted spots is difficult, but it's ultimately making them all better riders.

LOOKING AHEAD
The only non-Olympic thought Kintner has had time to entertain lately is about when she'll get to see her boyfriend and GT teammate, Bryn Atkinson, and return to the house they own in the Blue Mountains of Australia (their separate training schedules have kept them apart for months). Whether she'll return to 4X or remain in BMX is unknown, but wherever she ends up, she'll be even faster, which is enough to make all the women on either circuit nervous.

For now, she's focused on doing everything it takes to make the U.S. Olympic Team. No matter what wheels she's riding on, Jill Kintner is a champion, and she intends to prove that without a doubt in August in Beijing.