Viewers tuning into the Olympics and watching BMX cycling probably have a few thoughts.

A) Wait, BMX is an Olympic sport? (Yes, it became an Olympic medal sport at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.)

B) Why are the bikes so small?

The latter question, in fact, is the top searched question about the sport, according to Google Trends.

As Google explains, the smaller the bike, the bigger the jump.

The bikes usually have 20-inch rim wheels and only have one gear. They’re designed to have a resistant frame to support the riders’ jumps throughout the course.

Olympic BMX cycling is a sport that mixes racing and jumps and so riders need a lightweight bike to go fast and that can withstand the impact of landing repeatedly after jumps. At the Olympics, riders race around in a circuit of 300-meters to 400-meters with several jumps, rises and descents. The first four to cross the finish line advances to the following round.

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The national governing body of the sport in the United States, the American Bicycle Association, states on its website that the bikes are built small, “so you can go BIG.”

Bikes promoted by the association have “20-inch wheels designed to accelerate in a hurry and handle the biggest landings,” according to the association’s website.

There are a variety of BMX bikes for different purposes, but in general, “BMX is a sport built on the premise of racing fast, off-road tracks on a bicycle smaller and lighter than a road bike or mountain bike,” the adventure sports website Mpora stated in an articled published earlier this year.

The BMX finals took place Friday afternoon, with American Connor Fields winning Team USA’s first gold in the event. Alise Post won silver in the women’s event, the best BMX finish for an American woman at the Olympics.

This post has been updated.

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