Sichuan, unexpected capital of extreme sports

For the past ten years, the International Festival of Extreme Sports (FISE), created by the Hurricane Group, gathers some 550,000 spectators across five days in Montpellier, France. Similar in nature to the X Games, 1,800 athletes compete in 12 extreme sports – including BMX biking, skateboarding, inline skating, wakeboarding, scootering and mountain biking. B

By signing an agreement with Chengdu in 1981, Montpellier became the first French city to pair with a Chinese sister city. So it makes sense that, with the FISE World Series tour's global expansion (starting in 2014) to add editions in China, Japan, Malaysia, Canada, the US, Hungary and Andorra, Hurricane chose Chengdu as its base for the China event.

The aim for many competitors at this sixth edition of the FISE World Chengdu is Tokyo 2020. From October 31 to November 3, more than 450 athletes from China and around the world will compete on the slopes of the "freestyle park" in Sichuan's capital to try to win the World Cup in either BMX Freestyle or Roller Freestyle – and thus qualify for next year's Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Indeed, for the first time, these two disciplines will be part of the 2020 Olympics – and it's a true recognition for "extreme" sports that, for the past 20 years, have been growing in popularity, especially in urban areas. "The 450 participants of the FISE World Chengdu are solely amateurs, but we consider 30 of them as professionals and this year, several national federations will accompany their athletes," says Thibaut Girardot, the Asia general manager of Hurricane.

The BMX Freestyle event takes place in a 10,000sqft space equipped with ramps and bumps; it's a giant playground on which the competitor performs several figures and jumps for a minute and a half. At the end of the regulatory period, they're graded by a jury according to various criteria, such as the use of space, the form and the number of somersaults. As in ski-jumping, there are several levels of difficulty. The idea is the same for Roller Freestyle, except that the bike is replaced by inline skates and the competitor performs in a skate park, which is less bulky and has other types of bumps and ramps.

Apart from the two new Olympic disciplines, BMX Flatland is a unique event that athletes can compete in at FISE World Chengdu. It's an artistic performance during which the competitor "dances" and executes figures, all while staying on the bike. Additionally, there's the Scooter Freestyle – riding a scooter in an event that involves jumping and performing tricks for a minute and a half. "This is a sport that is emerging and has become very popular in Asia, especially in China, which is why we have associated it with FISE," explains Girardot.

In China, Hurricane not only organises sports events, it also builds dedicated tracks and equips many city centres with their own facilities – the 43,000sqft permanent structure dedicated to skateboarding and BMX at Beijing Sport University, the Chinese Olympic training centre and the Chengdu skate park are part of the list. "We sell the infrastructure along with some support to make it sustain all year long by making some equipment and coaches available to the city," says Girardot. "In Chengdu, we have also launched the FISE Academy." Over the past six months, 180 young people aged 5 to 15 have happily immersed themselves in rollerblading or BMX. Too young to compete on the tracks of the Olympics in Tokyo (which are also made by Hurricane), some of them are already training to achieve their dream – getting on the highest step of the podium and proudly singing the Chinese national anthem during the 2024.

Summer Olympics in Paris.

Images provided to China Daily