Forget the stereotypes evoked by the piercings, tattoos, fake names and wild haircuts.

　　This generation of BMX riders have come to the Games to compete, and show the world - beginning Wednesday at the Laoshan BMX track - that their sport deserves to be taken seriously.

　　"It has become professional and the level is growing higher and higher," insists Australian Jared Graves, one of the 32 men who will battle in two seedings runs in a bid to make Wednesday's quarter-finals.

　　"As a kid I always wanted to be in the Olympics. It is as high as our sport can go," said Kyle Bennett, an American three-time world champion who said that BMXers have radically changed their approach to competition.

　　"I didn't start doing weights until I was 20. That is how much our sport has changed," he added.

　　"Four or five years ago you would just go to your local track and ride. Weight training didn't come in until the Olympics."

　　Among the leading lights on the global scene is Britain's Shanaze Reade, a two-time women's world champion who has also won world gold in track cycling's non-Olympic event of the women's team sprint.

　　Reade's serious approach to her profession - thanks to a part-time but rigourous training schedule on a hard-to-handle track bike - has made her one of the most feared riders in the world.

　　She expects nothing less than a gold medal, and hopes to prove it's worth just as much as any other.

　　"I did track cycling to prove that BMX cyclists weren’t just people on kids bikes and to show that we are athletes.

　　"I think I have done that by setting world records on the track and winning two gold in two years," said Reade, who is already scaring off her rivals.

　　"Shanaze," said French great Ann-Caroline Chausson curtly when asked who her biggest opponent will be.

　　"I mean, she has won everything. But we are getting closer and closer."

　　BMX, which is an acronym for bicycle moto cross, became popular in the United States in the late 1960s - although for many European thirty-somethings the famous BMX scenes used in the film 'ET' were their first introduction to the phenomenon.

　　Since then it has gone from underground to mainstream, with national and world championships and a well-paid professional circuit.

　　BMX was finally given a chance to prove its Olympic credentials in the wake of the Athens Olympics when the International Olympic Committe axed two track cycling events - the kilometre (men) and 500 metre (women) time trials.

　　And for many, it has provided the perfect opportunity to show they are worthy of going for Olympic gold.

　　"If you have to leave it to chance, you shouldn't be up there," said Kamakazi, an Australian who has changed his name legally from plain old Jamie Hildebrandt.

　　"I've been hanging on to this sport for the last three years to make it to the Olympics."

　　Chausson, a former star in the non-Olympic event of mountain bike downhill who began her career in BMX, added: "I was riding mountain bikes, but when they announced that BMX would be in the Olympics, I came back to it.

　　"This is a big opportunity to be at the Olympic Games, and now everyone gets to enjoy this crazy little sport."