WINONA LAKE - He's covered BMX racing events in other countries before, but this one is going to be a little different.
"In some respects, it's just another race, but you can't say that, because it's the Olympics," Winona Lake resident Jerry Landrum said. "It's all magnified."Affiliated with BMX racing since his youth, Landrum says he's currently semi-retired from racing, but not from the sport, which he'll travel to see at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.
"I used to race, but I'm too busy taking photos and covering the events now," Landrum said.
Landrum's role at this summer's Games will be one as a technical advisor for Pro Gate of Rockford, Ill., the Olympic's official supplier for its starting system.
"It's real safe, real quick and real sophisticated," Landrum said of the heavyweight gate that drops at the beginning of BMX races.
Landrum garnered his credentials as a technical advisor, but will also double as a correspondent for magazines, "BMX Today" and "BMX World", as well as Web sites BMXbeijing.com and his own, BMXmania.com
"I've owned and operated my own Web site for 12 years," Landrum said of BMXmania.com, which he set up in 1996.
"It's said to be the world's No. 1 BMX Web sites," he added. "I update it everyday with news from all over the world, but it's kind of like a small-time newspaper for BMX fans. I put just about everything on it."
The opportunity to attend the Olympics as a technical advisor was a blessing for Landrum, who otherwise wouldn't have been able to cover the games for magazines or Web sites.
"There's only about 200 media credentials allotted for America, so they're almost impossible to get," he said.
After failing to get the proper media credentials, Landrum worked his way around that with the technical pass, but hopes to get some photos with his Canon G9 from the starting line. Those shots will then be shipped to the aforementioned magazines and Web sites, as well as Johan Lindstrom, the director of BMX Operations for the International Cycling Union in Aigle, Switzerland.
Lindstrom's UCI is the group the Beijing Olympic Committee conferred with to bring BMX racing to the Games.
Prior to getting the event into the Olympic Games, Lindstrom and the UCI first began setting up international BMX races. After meeting up with Lindstrom in 2001, Landrum began taking photos for him all over the world, including Madrid and Coppenhagen as part of the UCI BMX World Championships.
"The World Championships features six events, which the UCI organizes," Landrum said. "At the Olympics, the UCI is working to organize the event with the Olympic Committee, but the UCI is working inside the parameters of the Olympics."
So with Landrum leaving the States on Aug. 15 and returning on the 23rd, the trip will be like any other he's taken to cover a BMX race. Well, maybe not just like any other.
Landrum will update BMXmania.com daily while in China.
"I pretty much work all day long on it," Landrum said.
