Thiem Wins BMX Freestyle Park World Cup Round

Jacob Thiem won the men's UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup round at FISE Birmingham, a victory decided not under lights but by the weather.

A storm, a semi-final, and the top step

Rain forced officials to cancel the finals at City Walk in Birmingham, Alabama. The men's podium was set using semi-final results, and Thiem's controlled riding from that earlier session placed him first. Olympic silver medallist Kieran Reilly finished second, with series leader Rimu Nakamura in third.

From tenth to first

Nakamura had arrived aiming to extend his lead after winning the season opener in Montpellier. There, Thiem had finished 10th. The leap to the top spot in Birmingham gave the American his first World Cup victory on home soil, during the series' only U.S. stop of the four-round 2026 season.

Birmingham, a city of 200,000, hosted the World Cup for the first time. FISE World Series founder Hervé André-Benoît described it as "a city with soul, with ambition, and with a culture that naturally connects to what FISE represents."

The Nebraskan turned Southern Californian joined Huffy's BMX freestyle team in 2025 and learned his craft at the Nowear Compound. His result lands in a season already tilting toward Los Angeles 2028, where Park BMX Freestyle will hold its second Olympic chapter.

The rain spoke, and the semi-final scoreboard wrote the history.