Tokyo 2020: Team USA BMX star Connor Fields stretchered off Olympic course after major crash
Defending champion taken away by ambulance after incident
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Team USA BMX star Connor Fields was stretchered off the Olympic course after a major crash.
Defending champion Fields, 28, needed medical attention after the scary incident in the third heat of the semi-final of the competition at the Tokyo games.
Texas-born Fields, who was a favourite for the gold medal, had already qualified for the final after the two earlier heats.
Three bikes crashed on the first turn of the final semi-final run, and Fields received treatment before being taken to an ambulance, according to Olympics.com.
Fields landed hard from a jump and lay on the ground, with his Team USA jersey ripped as medics ran to treat him.
The semi-final round of the competition had been delayed for 45 minutes because of rain.
The men’s final was set to go ahead without Fields with a field of just seven riders.
The incident involving Fields was then followed by another crash in the third run of the women’s semi-final.
Australia’s Saya Sakakibara was leading the race when she crashed and had to also be stretchered off.
Fields became the first American BMX rider to win a gold medal in the event at Rio 2016.
He made his Olympic debut at the 2012 London Games, where he finished seventh in the event.
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