BMX Park bronze medalist Kyle Baldock talks growing the sport, X Games Sydney

Austrialian professional BMXer Kyle Baldock earned a bronze medal Sunday in the BMX Park final. He talked to FanSided about what sponsorship means to action sports athletes and the future of the sport.

Kyle Baldock knows a thing or two about exposure.

The 27-year-old professional BMX rider from Australia is a fan favorite and media darling. With his Aussie accent and full-sleeve tattoos, he’s also one of the most recognizable athletes in the sport — and the most decorated.

Baldock came into this year’s X Games in Minneapolis hoping to go three-for-three in gold medals, competing in the BMX Dirt, BMX Best Trick and BMX Park contests.

He finished just off the podium in the first two, but saved the best for last when it came to BMX Park on Sunday.

Or maybe he saved it for first. Baldock came out blazing to start his first run, throwing down a 720 tailwhip over the box jump that impressed the judges and earned him a score of 88.66, which secured him the third-place finish.

The Australian didn’t get any more golds to add to his collection this year, but the future is nevertheless bright for the innovative young rider.

He spent some time talking with FanSided in Minneapolis, discussing the future of the sport — including the X Games’ first contest in his home country of Australia, which will be held in Sydney later this year — and the importance of sponsorships.

When Baldock got started in the sport, sponsorships and media deals were much more limited. “Now, you’ve got these sponsors that pick up kids from the Internet and turn them into this icon, and then it goes from there,” he told me in Minneapolis this week.

“It goes from there to them helping you with social, to being able to talk in front of people, to just being able to be okay with yourself.”

Many people don’t realize how little, relatively, contests pay for action sports athletes compared to other professional leagues. It was a point that hit home pretty clearly for Baldock as we stood inside the new U.S. Bank Stadium and discussed how much money is pumped into sports like football.

“If we didn’t have major sponsors we wouldn’t be here,” says Baldock, who is sponsored by Monster Energy. “That’s the whole point of why I work so hard for the fans to understand what we do, because I want everyone to do what they love.”

One of Baldock’s biggest goals is to grow the sport, and it all starts with exposure — and in the same ways athletes provide exposure for their sponsors, the sponsors can help get athletes’ names out there, as well. “We’re not at the top of the podium yet, where I feel we could be,” Baldock says. “Easy.”

Baldock finished by saying he goes hard in his sport to show “his brothers and sisters in the crowd” who want to do something with their lives and just need a little push. “I’m there to push them.”

“Unleash the beast,” he adds, with a wry grin. That’s certainly what he did Sunday night with his eye-popping park run.

Dennis Enarson earned silver and Logan Martin earned gold in the event, which was the final BMX contest of the 2018 X Games.

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