BMX Rider
Jamie Bestwick
Jamie Bestwick is a British vert rider who won a long consecutive run of X Games BMX vert gold medals and is widely regarded as the best vert rider ever.
Updated 3 min read745 words
Jamie Bestwick is a British BMX rider from Nottingham who dominated vert competition for the better part of a decade. He won X Games BMX vert gold every year from 2007 to 2014, a streak of nine consecutive wins, and added further golds earlier in his career. Many riders and commentators consider him the greatest vert rider in BMX history.
Early life and background
Bestwick was born in 1971 in Nottingham, England. He began riding BMX in the mid 1980s during the first freestyle boom and gravitated to ramps. The British scene of the late 1980s and early 1990s was small but active, with jams and contests such as the Backyard Jam giving riders a place to compete and be seen.
Unlike many of his American peers, Bestwick did not turn fully professional as a teenager. He worked a regular job in England through his twenties while riding and competing when he could. He built a reputation in the UK and Europe before becoming a full-time rider.
Career
Bestwick's international breakthrough came in the late 1990s and around 2000, when he began competing in the United States and winning. He took X Games vert gold in 2000 and medalled regularly over the following years. Around this time he moved to the United States and settled in State College, Pennsylvania, which has remained his base.
Through the early 2000s vert was a crowded field that included Dave Mirra, Mat Hoffman and a strong group of specialists. Bestwick won often but not every time. That changed from 2007. From that year until 2014 he won every X Games BMX vert final, including both 2013 events, in Foz do Iguacu, Brazil, and Barcelona, Spain, for nine consecutive golds. He also won the vert title on the Dew Tour circuit repeatedly in the same period and was named vert rider of the year at the NORA Cup many times.
Bestwick's dominance coincided with a decline in vert's profile. Fewer contests ran vert. His streak ended with silver at the 2015 X Games, but he won vert gold again in 2016 and took silver in 2017, 2018 and 2019, competing into his late forties before stepping back from full-time competition.
Riding style
Bestwick's riding combined the two things vert judges reward most: height and difficulty. His airs were among the highest in the field, which gave him time for technical tricks at the top of each one. He was known for flair variations, tailwhip combinations and 540 variations done with unusual control, and for linking them in runs with no filler.
Consistency was the other defining feature. In an era when a single bail could end a rider's chance of a medal, Bestwick landed run after run. He prepared meticulously and rarely attempted tricks in finals that he had not already dialled in practice.
He was also notable for riding vert almost exclusively. While many of his contemporaries split time between vert, park and dirt, Bestwick concentrated on one discipline and took it further than anyone else.
Video parts and notable moments
As a contest rider, Bestwick's career is best documented through event coverage rather than video parts. Notable moments include:
- Winning X Games vert gold in 2000, his first at the event.
- The run of X Games vert golds from 2007 to 2014, nine consecutive wins.
- Multiple Dew Tour vert titles during the same period.
- Repeated NORA Cup vert rider of the year awards.
- Further X Games vert medals from 2015 to 2019, including gold in 2016, well into his forties.
Legacy and influence
Bestwick's legacy is a standard of dominance that no other vert rider has matched. The length of his winning streak is unusual in any sport, and he did it in a discipline where the physical toll is high and careers are often short.
He also demonstrated a different route into professional riding. He came through the British scene, worked a regular job into his twenties, and still reached the top. For riders outside the United States, he was proof that the biggest contests were within reach.
His influence on vert riding itself is in the integration of big air with technical tricks. Before Bestwick, riders tended to be known for one or the other. He showed that the two could be combined in a single run, and the riders who followed in vert and park have built on that approach.
Related
Frequently asked questions about Jamie Bestwick
How many X Games gold medals did Jamie Bestwick win?
He won X Games BMX vert gold every year from 2007 to 2014, a run of nine consecutive wins, with two events held in 2013, plus further golds before and after the streak.
Where is Jamie Bestwick from?
He was born in Nottingham, England, and came up through the British scene before moving to the United States around 2000. He has lived in Pennsylvania for most of his career.
Why is Jamie Bestwick considered the best vert rider?
He dominated the discipline for longer than anyone else, winning nearly every major vert contest for about a decade with runs that combined huge airs and technical flair and whip variations.
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