Kieran Reilly - #018

0:00Kieran Reilly. Jake Dearden. Here we go mate, take two. Welcome to the podcast. You've been here before. Yeah we have. I'm good to be back on. Another conversation, get to pick your brains again. Yeah, for the viewers. We filmed this before but something went wrong with the recording and it couldn't go live but we had a good chat. Yeah, keen for it again. Happy to be back. So I want to start with just kind of introducing yourself. Who are you? Who is Kieran Reilly? I could take that such a deep way. My name's Cune Riley. I'm a professional BMX rider. Not just a professional BMX rider. I feel like that's like a toxic athlete thing, isn't it?

0:40Where you're like, that's me as a person. But no, I ride BMX professionally. Loved doing it. Loved it since a kid. Lucky enough to be part of Red Bull. And we're out in Salzburg because of that opportunity. So we're out in Salzburg on a fitness retreat with all the fitness athletes from UK Red Bull. And you're here. and people would probably be surprised at that because they think, oh, Kieran's a BMXer. BMXer requires very little fitness. I think that's what people would assume. Yeah, definitely like the stigma of our sport. I think as well, like I've smuggled my way in with you boys, like trying to be like, it's sick for me.

1:16Like this is a sick opportunity for me because like I think you, Harry, like probably sick of it now. Like I'm all like sponging around you boys trying to learn as much as I can about like the way different people train. But like our sport is so mixed modality. like I'm technically a professional cyclist but in our sport we actually are trying not to pedal we're trying to hold speed in different ways and we're off the bike as much as we're on it so it's a complete different focus to a cyclist in training but it requires so much kind of like well-rounded fitness and you're a huge advocate of gym training getting strong and fit for your bike and obviously just tell us a little bit about like the layout of like a BMX because obviously you've been to the Olympics that's quite new in BMX and stuff like that but what is BMX in like what are the different competitions that you do?

2:11So BMX freestyle is one of the BMX disciplines there's of course race that you've seen on a track freestyle is doing tricks what you see the skate park and for us in competition it's a 60 second run so we'll have numerous rounds of competition qualify and semi-final final and they'll be slightly different in format qualifying as two one minute runs average of both those runs so you can't take as much risk semi-final and final is two one minute runs where the best run counts so you could take more risk and for us now the sport has evolved to a point where that whole 60 seconds is so important you can't start strong and fade out you have to end with an exclamation point you have to be fit enough to do your biggest tricks at the end and although 60 sorry all those 60 seconds doesn't sound long if you hop on an ego bike and for me this is the closest comparison i can make to anyone who goes to the gym or is in fitness and you do a minute all out it's enough you know what i mean and that's how it feels for us so a lot of the time in our sport when we're doing tricks like i was saying earlier you're off the bike as much as you're on it so I'm using my upper body so so much more than any other cycling discipline by trying to hold on the bike spin it around spin myself around and so yeah fitness now has become so big in our sport to get to the top so you're saying it's kind of like an all-out effort so equivalent to if you're running 400 meters yeah yeah they all out and you know that gases you that's uh that's pretty tough yeah but it's just that like that burn anaerobic like for lack of a better term.

3:46So how do you train that? I want to kind of separate this and then obviously the other kind of like muscle parts and the strength training you do, but for kind of like your cardio fitness and to build that anaerobic work, what kind of things are you doing in the gym? I think like any sport, like you're going to get fitter that I do in sports specific. But for us, it's such a high risk thing to do a competition run. You can't just rely on doing that. It's not sustainable to do that every day. So gym's massive for me. and I found in 2022 I started doing CrossFit. So I was actually doing a project with Red Bull, doing the triple flare, and the first week of filming couldn't get the trick done, but was so close that basically the saying for that whole week was like marginal gains.

4:30At the time I wasn't going to the gym at all, was under this impression of why go to the gym for an hour, I can just ride for another hour. And then I got into watching CrossFit through like a friend that was into it, then realized that like that modality of training to me is really interesting because it's so varied it's not like going to the gym on my own and in a pure gym or another like generic bodybuilding gym you know what i mean i'm that just didn't sound fun at the time and so i went into a crossfit gym and just it became like a hobby it wasn't like i was going there specifically to train all the time I enjoyed it and it was basically a hobby I found that was in line with my goals and then over time obviously I hit a point like any kind of fitness you those newbie gains so these massive newbie gains got in like the best shape I've ever been in landed the triple flare second time around with the filming and I was like I saw this direct trajectory with my results from training so I started using CrossFit modality to find a certain stimulus that benefited me so in my sport it's very quaddy it's very grippy it's gassy and so I was like right well I'm just gonna use these movements and I'm gonna try and get that stimulus that right I'm gonna work on my grip doing some gymnastics I'm gonna work on my quads more by doing like some squat capacity workouts with the echo bike and some sort of squat and then like yeah it genuinely starting the gym like changed my career and how often are you actually training at the gym at the moment like how many times a week probably six days yeah i think it sounds a lot but like like any athlete you i mean you know your body more than anyone else i know when i'm burning out and of those six sessions there's going to be low intensity in there there's going to be single session days but yeah like six second six sessions i'd say so you're doing six sessions probably around an hour yeah yeah i'd say so there might be some that are a bit longer with like excess rework and stuff like that but like like say 90 minutes on average in the gym yeah so you're doing 90 minutes six times a week and then how much are you training outside of that like sport specific like at the skate park so I ride five to six times a week like realistically more like five most weeks but sessions can vary so much they can be more slow and social you know less structured or in reality you can go in there in an hour and if you're on it you get it done like if we go to the park we'll joke about all the time you know if there's three of us in there we get into it and that session 90 minutes you're you can't you couldn't do you don't need to do any more if you wanted because you're hitting that point of fatigue and fatigue isn't dangerous in the gym but like if I'm on the bike it's not worth pushing past that and cause us off to crash so the sessions are so varied it's a between like 90 minutes and three four hours yeah and when you're uh when you're at the skate park I remember you mentioning that you kind of took the programming of the gym layout so say for example every minute on the minute kind of workout yeah and you've kind of transitioned that into sometimes like at the skate park and you try and do a trick like every so often yeah and so on so is that like how you structure is there like a certain amount of jumps that you do yeah for us so when we get the park especially leading into a competition it's like a trick list so I go in I know the tricks I'm doing at this competition coming up I want to do those tricks two three times that day I might do segments similar to in a high rocks you're never going to just run sims all the time but you might do like a half sim or you might simulate a couple of different transitions and that's what we'll do like we'll do 30 seconds of a competition run or 45 or five big tricks back to back or we might do a 60 second competition run at 80 % because the risk factor is just so high to go to that place so you only do that like realistically before we go to an event we might do a couple of runs at 100 % and even then it's not the same as competition because I mean it happened to me at the back end of last year like in a competition you've got this all-or-nothing mindset so I was going up to a trick to do a front flip over a jump and the speed was questionable and if that was at home in practice I just don't do it but in a competition you haven't got that choice you don't give yourself that choice and it's such a split second decision for us I remember landing looking up and thinking maybe I've got it but I'm going to do it anyway uh crashed broke my elbow tore my AC joint and like it's hard to get in that headspace outside of competition because that happens.

9:14You know what I mean? Like in that position, I'm going for 100 % and you do that at home. It's not worth the risk. There's nothing on the line. Yeah. So you can't, it's really hard to practice that kind of, like if you do, you don't have a perfect landing and then you go into the next trick or whatever, like you can't really practice that because you just bottle it. Yeah. It's too easy to be like, you get that thought creeping at home, like, ah, you haven't got the perfect speed, that's not risk it, we're at home. In a competition, it's, ah, we haven't got the perfect speed. How do you change that mindset?

9:46Because obviously, it takes some balls to go to competition and to be willing to fail when failing for you is breaking something, is falling off, you know, worst case scenario, you don't even want to know, but like yeah it's dangerous yeah I think like everyone's different but for me now like I think a lot of the time at competitions I would rather crash knowing I went for it and we all talk about it the riders you know and a lot of us agree most of the time it feels better knowing that that you went for it than those times where if I'd went up to that front flip just straight jumped and I missed that one trick from the run and it cost me all I'm going to think about the next day is like i can't believe i didn't go for that front flip i mean like and so it's hard to weigh up has that ever happened to you yeah yeah the olympics mate the olympics so i'm known for doing double flares in competition in practice i did my line with the double flare 10 times perfect in the competition i subbed it out for just a smaller a little bit of a smaller trick because i didn't have the perfect speed and in that moment basically first run i was sat in third and the points were very tight on the podium and the second run so I hadn't done that double flare in the first run either and second run I added so many things prior to the double flare when I landed and wasn't certain I was like I'll not risk it and now at like afterwards it beats me up like when I think about it I'm like mate that was because that was the difference between gold and silver and I think because of that happening now when I'm at a competition since the Olympics I've got that mindset of like I know how it feels to wish I'd done something so let's just lay all out there like it's all and often kind of thing how how do you feel getting silver at the Olympics like is it kind of like a bittersweet yeah definitely like if for me it was like and it I think I mean it's like the least humble thing to do is to call yourself humble but like I'm quite a humble person and I used to talk it down like I used to talk down getting silver all the time like because it to me it was it was like I lost gold and didn't win silver and it took me a while to realize what I'd achieved like I reckon the first six months after the games I'd struggled to celebrate silver and I'll more beat myself up by not getting gold and and everyone around me knew it as well like it properly done me in because it was like if it hadn't been so close it might not have but it's the fact it was so close it was it was hard and then it like I slowly realized you know like I need to be happy with with what I achieved if you told me 18 months ago I was going to go to the games I'd have bit your hand off for the opportunity if you told me I was going to get a medal on that I'd have been jumping up and down you know what I mean like and it's similar to like all competitive people you just you chase that like next thing all the time and so like i get to the games or and i want to win the games and then i get silver and it's like oh i didn't win the games despite the fact that i should be proud of getting so it is hard but then i hear it from other athletes who've been in the same position and they're grateful for it because they're like i watched the guy who got gold not right uh not not right but not do whatever sport it was you know like they took a year off because they they felt like they'd achieved the sport whereas i got silver so i was i was motivated you know what I mean?

13:13And when I realised other people went for that, I was like, you know what, you're right, like after the games, I think everyone thought I was going to do that, you know, I thought I was going to disappear for a while. We had European champs like two months after and I was back in the park way sooner than my coaches wanted me because I was like, I'm winning Euros. Did you go on holiday? So you went on a little holiday? Yeah, yeah. So I was met, well, I promised my girlfriend, like, because I was so strict and so dialed in in the run-up to the games, like was away from home to the lead up, like lead up to it for the last few weeks and we talked about going all day to like a dream destination after the games because it'd been so stressful like they build up to it and I was like alright I'm just going to go two weeks like Thailand or Mexico or somewhere I've never got time to go and then we went to Greece for three days because I was like it's easy to say that and then I was when I found out that European Champs was like I don't know like eight, ten weeks after the games I was like I can't go away for two weeks I need maybe if I got gold I would have done that maybe I would have thought you know what I'm not bothered about European championships I'm the Olympic champion but the fact I got silver like it's took a while to get there but now I'm grateful for it because I'm like it's kept me so motivated so yeah I went away for a few days came back and I was back in the park and I remember posted a reel one of my first sessions back and like I had a heavy session because I was like well motivated and uh we're like our coach sending me the reel that I posted and me like what are you doing in the park like chill but I went to Euros that year and won so it was worth it to me yeah definitely worth it but I assume your message wasn't very happy oh nah mate nah getting conned out of a two week holiday for three days I think it got to like it was a wild year that year because 2024 you know after the games like I say I was heavily motivated to get back into it but I remember we went to world championships that year it was December 22nd right before Christmas in Abu Dhabi and every single rider you spoke to on that course could not wait to go home.

15:09It was like everyone was so deflated from what a big year it had been. With the Olympic qualifying for us, you qualified to a qualifier, two events, and the top six overall got to go to the Games. They were the only guaranteed spots, and then the others were made up through continental spots and things like that. And so all of this stressful year had just gotten to everyone. and I remember getting there and talking to guys who, when you're an athlete, you assume everyone's so mentally tough. And I speak to people who I think, I bet they're not even fair. And you speak to them and they're like, I can't wait for this year to be done.

15:44It's been insane. You know what I mean? The volume of competing we did that year. And it was nice, like 2025 was able to do some different stuff. Yeah, that's pretty mad. You don't really expect, like you say, the top athletes to have the mindset of that. you almost have them their mindset as what's next like you said yeah kind of toxic trait of never taking in what you achieved and always looking to the next thing do you think that is potentially your secret and what you have that is kind of like a curse but a blessing and makes you the person that you are yeah yeah definitely both definitely because I think that that keeps me motivated like as well as other things but it's like you're saying it's blessed and the curse because it's great it drives me into the gym going hard every day it gets me to the park every day but also it's what has you obsessing over how well you're doing at that moment like is my training going good am I riding well right now this event you know what I mean and so and I think it's when you come up through a sport you and you like now I'm competing against like the cliche saying I'm competing against my idols the people I looked up to and you get to this level and you realize that everyone it's almost like growing up you know like adults are literally just kids and adult bodies like I talk to you always joke about and it's like the same with athletes like these athletes at the top are still the the person who just started that sport for fun but they're just at the top now so you've got to sit and it's mad to see like when we're talking about mental toughness and things like everyone's that I see at the top anyway is in the same position where like they get this amazing result but the next day they want the next thing and it's just so it's obsessive and like it's a blessing a curse but it's like to me it's still enjoyable I still love it being like that like I still love being like amped up for the next thing that's that's cool I want to take it back to the start like where this all started when did you actually get into BMX for me when I was growing up probably similar to you like It was all about being outside.

17:50We used to ride our bikes to the football field or whatever it was. And then we saw the kids at the skate park with BMXs. And that must have been when I was like eight. And straight away, all me and my friends wanted BMXs. And where my parents live, right outside is a football field and a skate park. And they got me a white helmet so I could stay at the skate park later because they could see me out the window. So they could come to the door, have a look. They'd see my white helmet. And they could tell which lads were at the park. like all the lads would look out for me and they're like all right he's at the skate park with so and so he can stay a bit later and then when i had to come home they just whistle one of the lads like kieran like your mom's whistling at the door and i pedal home it was like 30 second pedal to the house you know what i mean and just like fell in love with it like all i watched like my friends come and go like come into riding bmx for a bit and then they maybe hop on a scooter then eventually everyone like kind of stopped riding you know they did their own thing footy or you leave school everyone starts going out and then I noticed I was just riding like the older lads I kind of come up with and yeah I honestly from the day I got BMX started riding like my parents always joked that was the only thing I ever put effort into when did you uh so obviously you're skating with your friends growing up when did you become the best on the skate park was it like quite did you pick it all quite quickly yeah it was like because when you're a kid you're fearless as well so I'm riding with all the lads who like they've got that second thought when I think we're trying to trick they think oh but imagine if when you're a kid you have do not have that thought like so I'm just trying everything I'm and I progressed really quickly because I was pretty fearless as a kid and then I quickly realized like I'm getting better than the other kids that would take me under their wing and my parents were so supportive started taking me to amateur competitions in Scotland and Manchester and I'm going to these events and I'm doing well and I'm like oh like they my parents realized as well you know oh he's he's not just like good in our local skate park he's he's really good for his age and yeah once I realized that and I think from a kid I was I've always been like pretty competitive like so when I was going to these events like not like when you're young you don't want to win it's not like I want to win this like I'm it's it's more just like oh I want to be able to do the trick like he can do like why can needed that and i can't so then i want to learn that trick and like yeah just spiraled well you're uh well you said the parents were like super supportive would they come along to the skate park and like watch you every now and again yeah did they think it was cool or did they think it was kind of just like this because and we'll move on to this but like bmxing for a long time was kind of in this realm where like you went to the skate park you got stoned and then just did a couple of flips yeah and then that's it's kind of like this sport like what did your parents think at that did they think it could potentially get into the olympics because back then it wasn't it wasn't like professionalized like it is now yeah i think they they never expected it to go like i think they would have backed me with absolutely everything but never would have expected me to do what i've done i think they they just found it they loved the fact that i had something that i loved like i wasn't just going out and for lack of better word i wasn't just being like like a tour rag or like just going out and causing trouble because I spent all my time like they knew I was going to spend all my time at the skate park because I loved it and I think because I found something I was passionate about they were passionate about helping me with it my dad would always drive me to the local indoor skate park and he'd stand in that like dynamics it was called freezing cold warehouse for three hours watch me just write myself off for three hours as a kid you know what I mean and like I'm so grateful that they realized how much she meant to me and one of the first events my mom ever came and watched me at was a local council put a jam on at a skate park in Whitley Bay I must have been nine crashed knocked myself out cold cut my chin open like pretty rough for her to watch and that was like the first event or one of the first times she came and watched me road and still now like because of that she'll watch through like fingers you know what I mean so but like yeah they were always so supportive but never it was never like a what you call like a football dad where they're like pushy you know a dad was never like that like because there wasn't any specific avenue they were trying to push me down it's not like all right you're gonna go to the olympic because we weren't in the olympics like so because it was such a you know up in the air like he did I don't think anyone expected me to I ended up making a living from it.

22:20You know what I mean? Like, I definitely hoped, but didn't have any expectation. What was that transition from, like you say, leaving school? Obviously, you can't just become a professional BMXer. Like, you need to, obviously, prove yourself. In that time period, before that happened, like, what did you do for work and everything? So, all through school, I thought I was going to, genuinely thought I'm going to get a red bar before I leave school. That was, like, my dream. Did you? Yeah. Okay, so you expected, like... It wasn't expectation, it was the dream. I was like, I'm going to do everything I can, and I'm going to land this big sponsorship, and I'm not going to have to get a job.

22:56Because I watched so many other riders do that, you know, like whatever sponsor it was. And it felt to me, like it sounds so cliche, but when I was growing up and going to these amateur competitions, it always felt like the other lads that I was competing against were just better off. And I was like, oh, they're going to be able to just leave school and ride because their parents are better off or whatever it was. And I left school. That wasn't the case. I didn't go to my prom at school to go to a BMX event. That was one of the biggest events in the UK. In my head, I was like, right, I'm going to grind towards this event.

23:26Like, I think I was like 16. I started going to, there was a gym near me called Atlantis. It was like a proper old school bodybuilding gym. Like, started going there with one of the older lads who rode, probably just doing like bench and biceps or something. You know what I mean? I was like, I'm going to grind. I'm going to go to NAS Festival was the event. And I'm going to like get this place and I'm going to land my sponsor just before I leave school. sort myself out went there got like eighth or something you know like didn't really turn any like heads and left school and did uh went into a junior apprenticeship so parents wanted me to have something to fall back on didn't want to do college basically just wanted money to get a car to drive down to where I live now in Corby to train and did that for three and a bit years and then was in the airport on the way back from a trip got an email got my first ever sponsorship and it was you know I'm not with that brand anymore but it was like it was 700 pound a month and I was like I'm moving to Colby I quit my job moving to Colby like when I told my parents it didn't go down all that well you know and not because they wouldn't support like at the time I couldn't see that like I remember like storming out I was raging but at the time it was like I I didn't see the fact that they're like, you're moving four hours south to get a house, 700 pound a month and leaving.

24:45You've just become a qualified joiner this year. You're leaving that job. Like it wasn't the smartest decision. It was the best thing I ever done. And like. So you took it. Yeah, I took the deal. And I literally like, it was crazy timing. So I was in college one day. Basically my tutor there was like, mate, you take any more. The company I work for helped me out. Like they let me take time off unpaid to go to events. because I ran out of holidays very quickly. But the college basically said, like, you take any more days off and we're kicking you off this course. And I was like, I think, like, it was probably said in a more bitter way than that.

25:19Like, it probably mentioned something. Because they used to, they didn't work really supported the BMX I was doing. Like, I remember the tutors in college, they didn't get it. They just thought I was, like, the stigma of going down the park, smoking some whatever and doing some flips. But it wasn't that. And so they couldn't care for it. And I remember I was raging. and I just text, I came back in from lunch or something and I like text my parents, I was like, I need to talk to you tonight. But it wasn't anything serious. I remember I turn up, I was living with my partner and her parents because it was close to the skate park, kind of accidentally moved in there.

25:51Went to my mom and dad's house and went in and they were like sat there like, all right, what do you want to talk about? I was like, whoa, we aren't like a formal family like that. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, we are not a formal family. I was like, whoa, it's not that deep. I just like need to tell you is that I'm quitting my job. And like, you know, it didn't go exactly how I expected. And like we have this argument and that this was maybe like March of 2020. I quit my job. Me and Spaston keep BMX rider. Like he's helped me out through my career. And like we have this running joke about my luck.

26:25Like I quit my job. Week later, Taylor went with me who I used to work for. The staff got put on furlough till like December. I swear to God like a week later So you could have been paid I missed out on like six months It was terrible timing So I quit the job We had this house lined up, me and my partner in Corby Quit the job, we're ready to move down there Turns out that The people who were in the house Because they got put in the same situation Like Covid happened Our other places fell free so we're staying So I quit my job to move in March Didn't end up moving until September into the same house when the tenants finally were able to leave.

27:04So yeah, I missed out on like six months of pay and six months of riding, really. So did you get another job in that time or did you just do like off jobs? I lived with my partner in her bedroom, walked the dog once a day, did what everyone else did in lockdown, bought a pull-up bar for the door in the bedroom. I remember I spent like an extortionate amount getting some light dumbbells because everyone bought gym equipment. Like I wasn't going to the gym at the time, but I was like I was going I was working on site and riding every day and I was eating that way so I could eat what I wanted because I burnt so many calories and I was like I can't not do nothing now and sit in this room all day for months on end so like bought some crappy gym equipment I think we bought like a spin bike from Argos or something like that you know it's crazy how much the prices went up for me it was I think I paid like a hundred pound for one of the door pull-up thing you know what I mean like it was mental like and we were stuck there like it was it wasn't a bad time looking back but like I didn't ride as well for the whole of lockdown because you know like if I remember I went and rode an outdoor park and I put a clip up and people went in crazy like people kicked off like imagine if you crashed crashed like all the stress that's on the NHS they don't need you putting more stress on them so like I didn't ride for for months you know what I mean and then things started to slowly open up to elite athletes so we could start going to skate parks and stuff and drive down to wherever.

28:28But yeah, September 2020, finally got down to Colby. It was a mad few months. That's crazy. Did your luck improve after that? Yeah, well, yeah. Mate, I mean, it wasn't like... I moved to Colby and I was grinding socials hard. I rode hard every day. they all joked when I moved to Corby you know like there was that newfound motivation like someone knew would come and they've got that like for me I get to go to Corby once a month so now I'm living there and I can ride there every day I was like mate I'm I'm having it large every day I'm having it large like I would when I'm there once a month you know I mean at the time I see it now you know like it was intensity over consistency like I'd ride like eight hours yeah and then like try and do the same the next day and I was just like so excited and then it paid off because I just became such a better rider in such a short time because I had better facilities but also you know I had this one sponsor like I was saying and it was a struggle to live on that started I was living on beige buffet I ended up starting to have to work at the cafe at the skate park and although that's not a bad thing at all it's hard to kind of put yourself out there as this elite athlete whilst you're like serving people's sandwiches at the skate park you know me it's like like a double-edged sword you know I mean like I'm not exactly gonna be some kids idol and I'm handing them a subway at Corby so like I'm working in the skate park cafe and because you know I had to pay to ride and I wasn't on British Cycling at the time who very grateful they cover our riding now at the park and at the time you know like every bit of money that I had coming in I was spending to ride so yeah so when was the first kind of like competition where you got a bit of interest from like say other sponsors um when when was that so with Red Bull I'd had if anyone I mean a lot of athletes we spoke about it today you know like it's their company where they they're certain they want you before they make their move and so So I went to a couple of events and some other Red Bull BMX riders.

30:41I was at an event actually in Croatia in maybe, might have been like September when I'd just moved to Corby. Like things started finally opening up. You know, if you've got a COVID test, you could fly. So we went to this event in Croatia and two Red Bull BMX riders came over to me and were like, mate, you're going to owe me a beer soon. I was like, what are you on about? And he's like, just soon, you're going to owe me a beer. I was like, oh my god. But it was a crazy feeling. I'd heard whispers of Red Bull being interested in me, but hadn't yet approached them myself. We hadn't spoken. And so it was clear they'd been asking people about me, and then they approached me, we'd start talking, and I'd get my helmet a month or two later.

31:20And that's when everything... It's just, I think people don't realise how big a change that can be for an athlete. I got on Red Bull, and it's like, right, I went from scraping back, and as well, my contract that I was on that I was talking about, it was ending that year. And I got Red Bull in November. If I didn't get Red Bull at that time, I actually don't know what would happen. When I talk about it and look back, I'm like, things fell into place at very lucky times. That's good. And then with Red Bull, they help you get that kind of next level? Oh, mate, definitely. definitely like as well like it's again it's another newfound motivation like now i'm going to the park wearing a rebel helmet like i want to rep this helmet you know i mean i want to show people who i am what year is this is this november 2020 this is november 2020 yeah so there's this newfound motivation like i want to be putting my best stuff out every day and at the time i wasn't competing with british cycling so i wasn't traveling with those guys i was going to certain events in Europe but I knew I could I didn't have an excuse to not be posting or creating content so I was just doing that I was like I was showing everyone how good I'm riding I can't do it at an event on the main stage but I can post about it I can show people the work I'm putting in and at the time like I say I won't go to the gym but I was riding six hours a day when did uh when did BMX get announced that it was going to be in the Olympics I think it was 2018 when we or 2017 maybe, they announced BMX was going to be in Tokyo.

32:55British Cycling put teams together. I wasn't a full-time rider. I wasn't competing anywhere near a level to be part of the team. And then I genuinely didn't know if the Olympics would be a massive goal of mine until I watched Tokyo. And then at like 4 in the morning, I watched Tokyo at home in Corby. It was 2021. Yeah, so it was after the year. Yeah, late, which for some people, will have like I think for Team GB that benefited us like yeah we had another year for our riders getting better and like Dec and Charlotte who I became I was riding with them every day like looked up to them were they training the same yeah we all trained at Corby like like it was crazy I moved to Corby and the core group of like five or six riders that I rode with were literally the people I looked up to I spoke to you before the podcast about uh we were on about stature in my sport and there was a rider that I looked up to Alex Corborne and like the next thing I know I'm riding with him every day in Corby going around his house playing FIFA and like it was hard to not fanboy because I'm like I'm literally riding with the people I look up to and seeing those guys work towards the games the watching like how disciplined they were especially deck like I mean both of them but like I remember just you know sessions back then like it was easy for it to become a social and seeing deck like he was grafting and I watched Tokyo and I see that work payoff and I was like mate that stage and the opportunities they got after I was like it was at that point in 2021 I was like I'm gonna go in all in on competing now this at the time when I was like 50 50 as to like I love making content I hadn't had many good results in comps yet and I was like nah I'm gonna start being a competitor and when did the qualifiers start for the Olympics did you have to get like kind of like chosen kind of beforehand yeah was the like just qualifiers where anyone could go and compete and and try the look so for us BMX is UCI we have world cup events six a year and then we have smaller events which is C1s so a world cup thousand points if you win a C1 200 points world championships 2000 and there's a ranking and I just needed to work my way up the ranking I needed to go and get experience competing and that's what I did I started competing at as many events as I could started getting a little bit of support from british cycling as a guest rider and then in 2022 i got put on british cycling for my first world cup in brussels in july with that first world cup with british cycling repping the jersey and i got it was my first ever finals at a world cup and it was my first ever podium i got third i couldn't i could not believe it like it was ecstatic like best riding i'd ever done at the time and it showed how much i was benefiting from being with people with competitive experience and being with a coach, which was so new to our sport, you know, like I realized I didn't even use to plan a run.

35:45I used to just like think about the majority of it and be like, yeah, I'll probably do this on the box that over there and I'll figure out how I'll get there in my run. And then I realized that all of like, right, you plan that 60 seconds, you take off every trick you're going to do in practice. And so I learned to compete in 2022, like became part of British cycling. And then for us, it was the first Olympics qualifying was an 18-month point system and they went strictly off the UCI rankings so it was more of a consistency thing this time they used that same point system to get you to an unlimited qualifier so it was almost like you had to qualify for the qualifier then in the beginning of 2024 they did two events one in Budapest one in Shanghai and the overall from just those two events the top six qualified themselves as a person to the games so I managed to get third at both events that got me I think second overall got me a spot at the games the other six spots uh brit bmx freestyle we get 12 riders total top country gets two so there's 11 countries represented and the other six spots are given out based on world championships results the two years prior so the podium i'd say so i'm trying to dull this down which i can but basically continental spots every continent has to be um represented so the guy who represented South Africa Vinny he didn't do amazingly at world championships but he was the best from Africa he got a spot and then they worked their way down like right we need to have someone from Europe North America South America and they went through and from those world championships results figured out you know went down the list and so people who qualified you know like jeremy who uh jerry sorry jeffrey who qualified for canada he qualified by getting i think eighth or ninth world championships because it it got passed down and down and down because of the continents represented and it was so up in the air i remember the second qualifying event you genuinely had teams with groups of people on laptops trying to figure out who's qualified like it would i like it was it was mental like feel like they need kind of like a new qualifying system oh yeah yeah like i think the fairest way to do it for us would be do those qualifiers top 12 yeah that's the fairest like simple like yeah like and then as well as well it's the whoever's riding the best right before the olympics and it's stressful like man it was the most stressful it was more stressful at the Olympic qualifier than was the games because you slipped up you weren't going to games that was it you're like because i didn't get put that well at the worlds you know what I mean so it was like if they go back to the Worlds the Europe spot might not go to Team GB Talk to us about the Olympics but I want to hear about not competing all the other stuff around the Olympics because I'm really intrigued like obviously I think it's it probably would have been a lot of people's dream to go to an Olympic Games and just kind of like experience and take everything in what was it like did it live up to that dream?

38:47Oh mate definitely like the whole experience like When did you arrive? Did you arrive like before? I arrived mate like five days before maybe Before the Olympics start? Before the Olympics started But we were pretty early on in the games But the whole thing starts You go to a kit now And for us it was It's got an actual name But in Telford This massive Is it the NEC or something like that? They do a massive kit now So you go and get all your kit You try on all your GB stuff And like Oh mate That's when it becomes real I remember putting on a Team GB top For the first time And I was like This is what I'm competing in like, man, this is mental, you know what I mean?

39:26And then you get on, we got on the Eurostart, the games, you get there and the village is just like, the scale of it is mental. I think it's so hard to put into words, but it just blows you away. I remember walking through the village and being like, this is mental, this is real. Walking past, we were just people, I would just people watch. I would try and spot people. like the amount of people you see like i remember meeting like noah lyles yeah but i felt so bad he was going out for like i guess like a shakeout run with his hood up and i recognized him asked him for a photo and then he just got bombarded i felt so bad but like like the whole experience is mental and like it's funny because when you're out there you're also on like that side of instagram or that side of tiktok so you're seeing all the like stuff going down in the village and you're part of it Like, it's unreal experience, like going into the cafeteria and being surrounded by like athletes who are the best in the world in their sport.

40:28It's pretty crazy experience. Yeah, it sounds pretty mad. In regards to nutrition over kind of your lifetime as being an athlete, has it changed much as like BMX is professionalized and everything's got more serious? Would you say that, by the way? Would you say, because obviously I can say it and I can see it from afar, but do you think that's the case? Oh, yeah, definitely. The BMX riders are athletes now. I think they would have been sceptical to call themselves that years ago, but now it's legit. Everyone eats so clean. Everyone trains. Everyone's tracking every metric to get ahead, you know what I mean?

41:08Whether it's, if you want to be at the top, you've literally got to be treating yourself like a performance athlete because that's what you are, you know what I mean? and same with food like when I first moved out and I wasn't going to the gym and I was like like I was saying I was living on beige buffet like go Iceland packs of frozen food you know what I mean and like and I didn't what you're saying like chicken nuggets for your protein yeah mate genuinely like chicken nuggets and chips or something like that like because it what's wrong with like oven food like literally how I used to think I was 18 or whatever it was and I'm like it's a sound food chicken it's not greasy it's not takeaway like I think got 42 chicken dippers from Iceland because I used to do this yeah I think it had like 84 grams of protein or something like that probably was like 3 ,000 calories yeah probably 3 ,000 calories 84 grams of protein so I was like I can eat that in a meal yeah that's fine yeah the ratio terrible but like I was the same way and I like I saw and I didn't see it at the time but like my body comp changed I went from I wasn't eating great but I was riding and I was working on site to like I'm living on my own now I can eat what I want and it wasn't great food and so I saw this like change in body comp like was probably the heaviest I've ever been like highest body not that I was fat but like it was a change from someone who was active all day every day just uncomfortable yeah yeah yeah and like I remember I was on a trip it was a riding trip actually and like he wouldn't mind me saying because we laugh about it every time I see him but like we're at this trip in Wales Oliver Jack Jones another BMX rider like we're at this waterfall and we're taking photos and all He'd been giving me little jabs all week, but like, do you know when you need to hear something?

42:46And like, I think it takes more of a friend to say the uncomfortable thing. And I remember we were just at this waterfall, he's like, mate, you're meant to, like, you're like, show me this photo. He's like, you're meant to be an athlete, mate. What are you doing? And I was like, but all week I'm like, what are you on about? And then I saw, like, I saw that photo. It's crazy how you don't see it until like, like all these jabs all week. And he sends me this photo from the waterfall where I thought I'm going to look sick. Like, because I thought I was in good nick. And I look at the foot and I'm like, mate, shit, mate, he's right.

43:14I'm not an athlete right now. And he was the lad who was into CrossFit. And then I'd started watching and following a couple of people because he kept banging on about them. Like he'd bang on about Matt Fraser all the time. And so I started following it. And then I started thinking, actually, this is pretty sick. Like it's fitness racing. Like they're doing things fast. Like it's competitive. And that's what sparked me to get into the gym. It was a mad way for it to happen. But I definitely needed to hear it, by the way. Sometimes I tell the story to someone and I say, he bullied you. And I'm like, no, he told me what I needed to hear.

43:49Like you're saying, sometimes you don't see it. So you're more grateful for that than any person that's been nice to you ever. Yeah, 100%. Like enablers that are like, nah, you're in great, Nick. Like, I wasn't. Oh, yeah, just come on, come out for another beer. Let's get some food. Let's go to McDonald's. Yeah, it's better to have the people that just talk the truth. He'll crease up when he watches this, because he used to text me in that, like, have I got a good result not long after joining the gym? Like, say the first year I won Euros, he'd be like, thanks to me, that. I love that. Take an all the time.

44:26How important is it to surround yourself with the right people? Mate, for athletes, anyone who's trying to be at the top, so important on and off the bike as well do you think people can make it on their own like strictly on their own with no support you know you probably see these people these I think it's like far and few in between I think you can but I think like some people like that who like want to do shit alone want to sorry want to do it alone they adopt that mindset of like how would I describe it like no like all dark and like mysterious and like like when when they go to the gym like they're grinding like going to war and it's like me going to the gym to train for your sport like they adopt that mindset and it's like I just don't think it lasts I think you just burn yourself like I used to think like that like you could just do it on your own I'll go ride on my own I'll go gym on my own and now I similar to you about like majority of my training especially in the gym is on my own but it's I've got a support network around me I've got like a very supportive partner I've got friends that I can go to I've got people that like every now and then will hop in a session to keep me company when i go and ride i'm riding with other lads who are in a similar position and we can talk about it like i think it's like the saying like if you want to what is it if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far take company you know i mean like i think it just lasts longer yeah i agree i don't know many people who do it alone and if they do do it alone i kind of feel sad for them because yeah like the wins and everything like you it's horrible celebrating on your own Oh, yeah, definitely.

46:04You want to experience it with people. That's what makes it good. If I went to the Games on my own, it wouldn't be as fun. The thing that made it amazing was the people that were there. Yeah, talk to us about when you were doing your jump in the Olympics and you had all your family behind you. Yes. Again, when I'm talking about it, I've had bad luck. I've also had pretty amazing freak luck like this. You buy tickets for the Olympics and it's a complete random scene. and where I started at the games, like where you drop in for my run, my family, I was right by the fence. My family were there. It was such a freak accident.

46:39They were 10 feet away. And it was like a blessing and a curse because, you know, I'm already so in the moment and emotional and like there. I remember our coach was like, do not look at your family. Like we went for practice and I realized where they were in practice. I was like, this is unbelievable. That's where they're going to be for the weekend. Like it's sick. And I just joined, I joined Adidas at the time and we're still with Hadidass but the Newcastle new shirt came out the day of finals and so my team manager messaged me he's like I don't want to get on your case but can you just send me your dad's number I'm gonna get him one of the new Newcastle tops because they're bound to put him on the Megatron you know what I mean like he'll appreciate it so I was like yeah he'll be buzzing and then I get to finals day I get on the course and I look up and I see all my family like 10 people in Newcastle brand new Newcastle tops like like all 10 of them like it was just like an unreal touch and that I had like my a bunch of my family came out then I had friends who came like from the gym who knew the work that I'd put in for it and I remember as well so just something about go like I said my coach said do not look at your family do you you know I've got like my routine I do before I drop in to get in the zone and he's like just do not look at a side-eyed I literally like went like this and I did my run and my coach is like what I tell you about not looking at your family he's like you looked I told you not to look I was like how do you notice that like and uh so like second run trying not to look and um the owner of the gym i train at he came with and a bunch of my friends and his brother and basically when we're at a comp you know they'll call you in and be like next to drop in from uh great britain kieran riley and i'll be like ah and then the crowd goes quiet and you know you always like if you're a smart athlete you wait for the crowd to go quiet because you settle your nerves if you drop it in when you ramped up it's not great to do a fitness event drop like start and that with your heart rate spiked so you know I'll wait for it to go quiet and I go to go and I just hear Sam Ash's brother like the owner of my the gym I train at he's like get it Kieran like right as it goes quiet and I was like just luckily I was like so locked in it didn't affect me but I remember after just thinking how funny it was I was like right as it went silent like it could have went one or two ways it could have done me you know what I mean but like but yeah so grateful that the first games I went to was Paris and it was close enough to home where I could have that support.

48:54Like you say, it's crazy that you can have that look sometimes when you need it bossed or potentially you didn't need it. I don't know. You're probably super focused. It's cool to look back on. It was a healthy bonus having that. And like you say about the wins, being able to experience that with my family 10 minutes after the podium ceremony, they're trying to drag me away from media and I'm like, I just want to go. my family are 10 feet away at the end of the course I just want to go and see them for five and one of the Team GB liaisons quickly scurried me over there to see my family and it was unbelievable mate it was mad yeah well that's like a once in a lifetime opportunity yeah definitely so touching back on getting second place what are your goals moving forward is it all eyes on the 2028 Olympics is that the next thing or have you got things in the meantime time yeah for us the competitive season goes on I mean I would like to I still just want to compete and be dominant I want to be known for having longevity and I mean I want to be at the top for as long as I can and the Olympics is absolutely a goal for me is is there a lifespan of BMXers I think I'm 20 I'm 24 and there's guys at the top in their 30s like I think there's the argument might be made that your recovering things will depend on how you've tracked your body when you get to late 30s like mid 30s it might go down but in Tokyo the silver medalist Daniel Dez was 36 so it's all on how you treat your body and how you train but yeah now I'm just motivated for like the next event like I always think about what's next so this year you know back on the World Cup circuit European Championships British Championships Worlds like I want to try and secure as many jerseys as I can in order to be in a good spot for 2028 to try and qualify for the games and it's in LA right LA yeah but then as well like that's another thing is as well as being a competitor I want to get back on doing what I love which is like creating content using brands like Red Bull to do amazing that we've got this opportunity I want to use that again you know I haven't done a big project since doing featured or doing the triple flare and it's like I want to that's a different kind of rush and I want to feel that again as well yeah it is cool when like you say you can have that opportunity to kind of come up with the challenge or a project that you think of and you have a brand backing you I just think it's the coolest thing ever but uh yeah I want your advice on what I do which is high rocks um obviously you're majorly into your fitness what things do you think you could take away from your training that would help and convert over into functional fitness and higher-ups?

51:42Oh, mate. I'm thinking grip strength. Let's start there. Because you must have insane grip strength to hold on to the bars. I think, mate, CrossFit gymnastics and bar-bar cycling has been unbelievable. And trying to do a workout where you're just holding on to stuff. I remember texting. Genuinely, we've been spending this weekend with Harry Lightfoot and he keeps going on at me for being, he calls it a Norse. never he was on about this earlier never heard the word apparently it just means like someone in your ear and a nerd they're like what they always want to learn and like yeah yeah literally yeah i'm always trying to learn from you guys and i remember i was speaking to crossfit athlete like just medeiros and i was on about that specifically and i was like i need to get better i'm a quad endurance and my grip strength and i think like texting back some workouts but at the end he was like just do things where you hold on to things for a long time i was like yeah that's that's right like you know i mean if i do a workout and i'm like right I want to be using my grip throughout this whole workout.

52:40So just kind of like tying up exercises that use your grip strength. So I'm thinking like maybe like a farmer's carry into a row, into something like a total bar. Yeah. Gymnastics especially because of that constant re-grip and the constant move and like the fact you're stimulating other muscles as well as your grip. But then like something I did a lot in the run-up to the games was because I didn't realize at the time, like grip is something you can very easily overtrain. because you use it way more than you think and I remember speaking to other people and I'm like oh I only like I'll do grippy workouts but not with the intent of not with the intent of just like I'm doing this for grip injuries like do your accessories like dead hangs stuff like that you know max holds like in high rocks for you I guess the grippiest thing is the farmers carry but yeah it's not too bad to be fair I think you can overtrain it yeah because at the end of the day you only need to go 200 meters yeah so it's not like you need to be gripping on something for 10 minutes or five minutes and you think with the farmer's carry as well the the more you train it the bigger your traps are gonna go and the bigger it's crazy like for you that's like excess weight yeah you don't need you probably don't need so it's kind of like you need the minimal effective dose to get through the 200 meters unbroken do it as fast as possible without causing hypertrophy so you're not as heavy for the runs and for the other stations and what about core strength because like say you're flipping all over the place you move in your body like just looking at you you're like you're stacked like yeah yeah we're broad like you're not going to see many bmx riders like a v taper like we've all got oblique like wide obliques because so much rotational work and to be fair me personally it's not i don't do a massive amount of core specific i do things with my core involved but like you do so much with riding with the rotational stuff with like anytime I do a trick off the bike you don't realize but you brace I spoke to I speak about it a lot but when we ride as well as it being a minute run people won't realize but every trick that you do you hold your majority is sorry you hold your breath so it's like bracing for a lift so I go up to do a big trick I go up do the trick land go up do the trick you kind of like need that extra power yeah you brace every trick where I I'd take my hands or feet off the bike, you brace.

54:58So it's constant breath holds. I didn't even realise it at first. Then I was like, actually, it takes a lot of focus for me to breathe whilst I'm doing that trick because I feel looser. I'm not compressed and tight, which I need to be to keep the bike close to me when I take my feet off or wherever it is. Does power to weight ratio matter within BMX? Can you be too heavy to ride or can you be too light to ride or too weak? You can definitely be too weak. Like you see people where the bike kind of can take them for a ride. It's a lot harder for them to throw it around. And there's not a massive thing on being too heavy, but it's more if you're heavier, you need a heavier bike.

55:40You're going to land heavier. You're more likely to break parts. Like if I land, we'll call it landing sketchy, if I slightly under-rotate on a trick, I might get away with it. But someone 10 kilos heavier than me, maybe they blow out their back wheel and that's their competition run done. So I think it's so discretionary because when we travel as a team, mate, you would not know what sport we did. Because I'm 5 '3", short and stocky. There's other lads on the team who are like six foot something and they won't mind me saying like lanky. And then there's people in the middle. We're all built so differently.

56:17That doesn't seem to be. if you looked at all the world championship world champions in bmx where even the seven world champions whatever it is there's been since we joined the uci like no one's built the same that you couldn't look at that and go that's the perfect build for bmx because everyone's different yeah that makes sense to be fair like you say you see so many different like shapes and sizes i want to finish with a couple of just quickfire questions uh first one if you could give one piece of advice to someone that wants to get into professional BMXing, what would it be? Get on a bike.

56:53Get on a bike and ride the way you enjoy. Have fun first. So don't go into it competitive. If you're a young kid and you want to compete, get on a bike, learn which way you enjoy riding and then see where that takes you and go down that route. Don't try and ride like someone. Take inspiration, absolutely, but be your own rider. That's pretty cool because like I think that can be applied to like any sport or anything really. If you enjoy it you have more of a passion to do it. And it doesn't feel forced, it doesn't feel like work. Yeah and you can't just like carbon copy someone. I can't, no other Hyrox athlete can do your program and get the same results.

57:33Yeah that's discussed literally all the time within Hyrox. Yeah like no other rider. We talk about all the time like we ride together and we train together so it's not like we're hiding our tricks from each other because it's like i can't do go and do your tricks and get scored the same as you because it's a subjective sport you might look you do your tricks differently to the way i do it so it's going to be judged differently because we're in a subjective sport uh favorite trick that you can pull off it varies uh but i would say 720 tailwit right now just because like it's one of them tricks where i've been doing it a while but it still just gets your heart going a little bit.

58:14It's one of them where as I'm getting into the session, it's one of the earlier big tricks I'll do but it's still enough to be like, yeah, we're in now, we're in the session now. If you couldn't do BMX and you could do another sport that was in the Olympics, what would it be?

58:32I'm trying to think. I love how I said Olympics, otherwise it would have been CrossFit straight away. I mean I always think about this as well I think I was going to touch on it earlier One of the questions like when you're on about tips For people in high rocks I always think this When I'm tired and I don't want to go train I think And this is going to sound so bad But I just think how easy It must be to be tired and just have to Go to the gym Because I'm tired and I have to go and Do tricks That like put myself on the line Yeah, like if you're failing them, like if you fail a rep, you're like, right, you just drop your dumbbells.

59:09If you fail, like you're literally like almost dead. You go have a bad session and you leave not very happy. I go have a bad session, I leave bad, you know what I mean? Like I think, God, I'd love to be someone who just had to go to gym. You're leaving an ambulance. Not that it's easy at all because it's completely different. but yeah if I had to do Sport S in the Olympics I I would love to try it's going to sound so bad because it's so similar well not similar but the track segment on the velodrome because it's just like like a single have you got a good sprint in you? I reckon I mean you're pretty fast twitch I've seen you train in comparison to the lads who do velodrome like mate if you see their quads and their squat and the watts that they're putting out and stuff like that it's crazy to me outside looking in it looks like such a single modality of training like you need strong legs like you go gym you squat you leg press you quad extension you do some lat strength that pull on the bars and you do sprints and so like it looks enjoyable because it's just about being powerful and I'm sure I'm sure like there's way more to it than that like I spoke with Mike Richardson who does that and like I was on about getting on the track one day with him when we finally see it I'm sure it's going to be humbling like I put out some what's but not like those boys yeah that's crazy if you had a message for the people that you influence what would you want that message to be

1:00:41I put you on the spot there yeah I'm gonna say

1:00:50don't don't compare yourself to anyone I think that's like the worst thing to do in sport because like I said especially in BMX, subjective. Don't compare yourself, be your own person and enjoy being your own person. Amazing. Kieran Riley, thank you mate. Cheers mate, I enjoyed it.