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There are few sports in the Olympics that put the very lives of an athlete at risk. One of them is BMX racing. It was introduced at the 2008 Beijing Games and will take place again at the upcoming Paris Olympics. It involves eight riders at a time flying out of a starting game, down a steep ramp and into a course with tight, banked corners, high-speed straightaways and myriad of jumps. Broken bones, concussions and even paralysis occur with scary regularity. So why do the athletes do it? For some of them, it's the adrenaline rush. For others, the burning desire to win.
