James' Profile

Jones, a founder member of the Great Britain Cycling Team BMX freestyle park programme in 2018, only discovered the sport by chance but has made an impact on the world stage since. A talented footballer in his youth, Jones was 14 in his native Swansea when he was tempted to try BMX at a skate park that was situated near his football training pitch.

He has never looked back, eventually forging a career as a professional BMX rider and, in competition, recording a career highlight with victory at a FISE European Series Freestyle Park event in Chatearoux, France, in the summer of 2019 - an event in which he led fellow British riders Ben Wallace and Cam Peake in a clean sweep of the podium.

Later that year, Jones also finished just off the podium, in fourth place, at the UEC BMX Freestyle Park European Championships in Cadenazzo, Switzerland, one place behind GB team-mate Declan Brooks. Along with Brooks, Jones had joined the new Great Britain Cycling Team freestyle park programme in 2018, a year after he had sustained a back injury which saw him break two vertebrae and suffer a hairline fracture in his neck following a crash.

Told to take a year off the bike, Jones was competing again within three months and, by 2019, was recording impressive international results in the fledgling Olympic sport.

There were top-ten finishes in UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Cups in Montpellier, France, and Chengdu, China, as well as a debut appearance at his first UCI BMX Freestyle Park World Championships in which he finished 17th in the same Chinese city.

After the 2020 BMX season had been lost to the Covid-19 pandemic, Jones narrowly missed out on the finals of the 2021 World Championships in Montpellier, finishing 14th.

The summer of 2021 also saw Jones selected as a travelling reserve for the Tokyo Games as the sport becomes an Olympic event for the first time.

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