Declan's Profile

A founding member of the Great Britain Cycling Team BMX freestyle park programme when it was inaugurated in 2018, Declan Brooks represented his country at the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, where he came home with GB’s first ever men’s bronze medal. 

Brooks’ father instilled in him a love of riding on two wheels - motorbikes, motocross and BMX – from a young age, and the versatile rider might have pursued another career before his opportunity arose as an Olympian.

The Portsmouth-based athlete, who grew up watching BMXers riding at Southsea skatepark on the south coast, before trying it out himself, has been a competitive BMX rider for 15 years, and quickly marked himself out as a potential medallist when he took to the international stage in 2019.

The start of his time with the Great Britain Cycling Team was disrupted by a double leg break which sidelined him for six months, but Brooks began to make a name for himself in his first full season of competition at the elite level.

In October 2019, he collected a bronze medal at the UEC BMX Freestyle Park European Championships in Switzerland and followed that with a second place at the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup in Chengdu, China. That was enough to clinch Brooks an eighth-place finish in the world cup standings for that season and he ended the year with a strong 10th place showing at the UCI World Championships.

Before joining the Great Britain Cycling Team, Brooks’ career path took him around the world working as a stunt rider, appearing in Mary Poppins, Cadbury’s promotions, Bollywood movies and even the world-renowned Cirque du Soleil with whom he toured the USA, returning just in time to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games.

The Games represented an opportunity for Brooks to show his skills on the world stage, with the discipline being included on the Olympic programme for the first time in history. Brooks claimed a sensational bronze medal for his efforts, putting himself firmly in the history books.

In 2023, Brooks claimed another bronze medal, this time at the European Games in Krakow, Poland, where his teammate and training partner Kieran Reilly took gold.

Brooks most recently took bronze in the UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cup in Montpellier, France, and continues to be a source of inspiration for the next generation of riders on the squad.

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