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Alise Post and Brooke Crain line up their bikes at the gate. Donning navy jerseys with red-and-white sleeves and covered in stars and stripes, the BMX riders are ready to launch themselves from an 8-meter-high ramp.Here, at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Chula Vista, California, lies one of the toughest tracks in the world; its jumps and turns dare riders to conquer or crash.The slightest error, youre on the ground with a punctured lung, says Jamie Staff, director of BMX for USA Cycling.Heads down, backs straight, hands tight -- hands really, really tight -- Post, 25 and Crain, 23, dont have time for fear. Two and a half seconds later, the riders who will represent Team USA at the Rio Olympics starting Wednesday, zoom down the track, bouncing over jumps like billy goats and hanging in the air as if they wont come down. Less than a minute later, theyve completed the outrageous course.I think everybody in this sport is somewhat of an adrenaline junkie, Post says. You get addicted to that rush of it. Thats what keeps you coming back. That little bit of unknown, and that bit of fear, its always going to be there. But thats the thrill of it.A need for speedPost and Crain ride again and again from 9 a.m. until noon on the Chula Vista track, alongside their Rio-bound male teammates, Nic Long, Corben Sharrah and Connor Fields.BMX, or bicycle motocross, took off in Southern California in the 1970s. Testing riders to the brink of physical and mental exhaustion, the sport debuted on the Olympic stage at the 2008 Beijing Games.Side by side, cyclists race over a course filled with giant leaps and challenging turns, with the winner being the first to cross the finish line.Though three USA riders medaled in Beijing -- Mike Day (silver), Donny Robinson (bronze) and Jill Kintner (bronze), an American has yet to win gold.Post and Crain hope to change that this week.In practice, they dont go at any gear other than all-out, especially since the sting of the 2012 London Games remains. Post crashed twice in the semifinal heats, while Crain wiped out in qualifying on the first day but still advanced to the finals before finishing eighth.In practice, theyre always pushing it so hard, says Long, who conserves his maximum effort for races. I dont crash very often. Maybe its because I dont push it super hard out here.They dont seem to have that switch. They just go as hard as they can at all times.Both women grew up with family members who motivated them to keep up.The first time Crain hopped on a bike, she cried. The 6-year-old from Visalia, California, was terrified to ride down the hill at a local track, so her parents took turns running behind her, clutching the back of her shirt. I wouldnt let them let go, Crain says.Post, also beginning at 6, walked to the top of a local course in Minnesota and chickened out. My mom and dad tried to get the membership money back, like, Oh, cancel it, shes done, Post says.But Post returned the next week, fears be damned.She crashed.Hearing her brother yelling at her to get up, she realized she could do it. Whats a few bruises? BMX was gnarly. Cool. Something most girls didnt do.Crain, too, fell in love with the rhythm of the sport: fly, get knocked down, get back up.Post, who holds eight national No. 1 USA BMX series titles, is the winningest female in USA BMX history.Crain, who won two world titles as an amateur, became the youngest rider to make a Supercross (international elite style of racing) final as a 16-year-old in 2009. She has made the podium at four World Cups and has been in the top three in the USA elite womens class every year since 2012.But both battled injuries that threatened their chances of qualifying for the London Games.Post broke her ankle in 2010. After a full recovery, she blew out her knee in the same leg three months later while going over the handlebars on a jump, which also left her with a ruptured hamstring tendon, a hairline femur fracture and a detached meniscus. She was back on the track in January 2012, just five months after surgery.Crain broke her shoulder at the world championships in 2012.BMX provides a high, no matter the physical costs, that only riders can understand.I dont think were human or were just not going to be able to move when were 30. One of the two, Crain says. You have to be tough to be in BMX, you really do. Thats just part of our sport.A shot at redemptionPost remembers London in pieces. It was just an emotional blur, she says.During the second semifinal heat, she failed to clear a jump, coming out of the tunnel into the second turn, and crashed. In the third heat, she crashed on the final straight, hitting her head hard.My parents told me that I came up to them and was just like, Hey, thanks for coming. I gotta go race now. They said, No, no, no. Youre done, Post says.Crain, originally selected as the alternate, was asked to compete at the last minute when teammate Arielle Martin crashed days before the team was supposed to leave for London. Crain didnt feel physically or mentally prepared.They were like deer in headlights, Staff says. It was a shock.Exhausted and disappointed after returning to the States, Crain rested on pillows while wrapped in blankets on her parents living room floor for three days. Post had two hand surgeries. But soon, the friends and long-time competitors were back on the track, using London as motivation for Rio.The driving force behind any athlete is wanting to reach your potential and put your best effort out, says Post, who bounced back from a broken tibia in 2014 to capture back-to-back Womens Pro titles in 2014 and 2015. Post currently ranks third in the world and is expected to contend for a medal.I personally know [London] was not even close to my best effort, Post says. I dont want to say that Rio has been the forefront of every race Ive done, but everything is a stepping-stone. How do we work backwards from that? How do we grow from every race experience and try to be overall more consistent riders?Crain, who is fifth in the world, recently recovered from a broken leg she suffered during a World Cup race in Holland 12 weeks ago.The grind doesnt stop.If you race BMX at this level, you have to be resilient. ... If you dont have that certain level of resilience, youre not going to make it, Fields says. Brooke and Alise, they just keep punching. They get knocked down, they get back up again. DOnta Foreman Youth Jersey . Catch all the action on TSN2 at 11pm et/8pm pt. The nine-time Big 12 champion Jayhawks are positioning themselves for another title, as they have run out to a flawless 6-0 mark in conference play thus far. Justin Reid Youth Jersey .Y. -- Jayna Hefford scored the winning goal Friday as Canada survived a scare with a 4-3 win over Sweden at the Four Nations womens hockey tournament. http://www.officialhoustontexanspro.com/Deshaun-watson-texans-jersey/ . Barcelona also left injured defenders Carles Puyol, Javier Mascherano and Jordi Alba out of its squad for the trip to Glasgow. That means that Marc Bartra will probably start again in the centre of the defence alongside Gerard Pique. Andre Johnson Youth Jersey . -- Ryan Getzlaf grabbed the three pucks wrapped in tape and held them up to his chest in the Anaheim Ducks dressing room for a celebration nine seasons in the making. DeAndre Hopkins Youth Jersey . LeBron James and Chris Bosh didnt need any more. Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. NEW ORLEANS -- It is five losses and counting for the winless New Orleans Pelicans, and in any election year, those are awful polling numbers.The 0-5 Pelicans get another chance at breaking their early-season slide Friday night when they host the 1-4 Phoenix Suns at the Smoothie King Center, but dont necessarily count on it.Even in a game when the Pelicans bit players came to play -- putting up decent numbers in an 89-83 overtime road loss to the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night -- forward Anthony Davis, who had scored 50, 45 and 35 points in three of New Orleans first four losses, had an atrocious night.Davis is still averaging 31 points per game, but he went 3-of-13 from the floor and scored a season-low 10 points in the loss to Memphis. He knows he wasted a rare opportunity because the Pelicans role players actually showed up.Rookie guard Buddy Hield, mired in a shooting slump in the first four games, scored a career-high 18 points and was 4 of 9 from 3-point range. Swingman Lance Stephenson, who awakened a dormant New Orleans offense in a 35-20 second quarter, led the Pelicans with 21.Everybody else stepped up and made the plays and kept us in the game, Davis said. I didnt come through on my end, and thats on me. I didnt perform to the level Im capable.At the end of regulation, with the score tied, Davis wound up fighting the clock and missed a 3-pointer. The Pelicans only needed a two-pointer or a foul shot to win.The only people who can dig us out of this is us, said New Orleans coach Alvin Gentry, whhose team opened 0-6 last year and eventually was 1-11 before playing respectably in the last five months of the season.dddddddddddd No ones going to feel sorry for you at this level.The Suns, meanwhile, notched their first victory of the season with a 118-115 overtime decision at home against the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night. Guard Eric Bledsoe nailed a tough 3-pointer on the right wing over the outstretched arms of Damian Lillard to get the relief victory.I wanted the ball and Coach gave it to me, and I delivered, said Bledsoe, who scored 12 of his 20 points in the final 5:07 of regulation and the five minutes of overtime.Bledsoe had made only 3 of 15 shots before exploding down the stretch.I had to be extra aggressive, Bledsoe said. This team is going to go as far as I take them, and Ive got to do that. I have to lead by example.The Pelicans and the Suns split four games last season. Bledsoe played in three of those games and averaged 25.5 points per game.Gentry said he was pleased that Hield, who missed his first 12 3-point attempts over four games, seems to be getting more comfortable with his outside stroke.He still has a long way to go, Gentry said. Hes a young player trying to learn the league and what its all about. Hes a real conscientious kid. We will sit down with him, watch tape and he will learn from the mistakes he made and some of the breakdowns he had. ' ' '