Pro freestyle BMX rider, Keelan Phillips, visited the county last week as part of the Leicester-Shire & Rutland Legacy Roadshow. Keelan shared his story with students from Welland Park Academy and performed a variety of demonstrations throughout the visit.
Keelan started riding BMX in primary school when he was given a ‘hand me down’ from his brother. At the age of 10, he got his first proper bike and slowly began to drift away from racing and into the world of street BMX.
With his cousin, he started to ride stair-sets, jump walls and grind rails. Slowly Keelan started to ride less street and more flatland. He says:
“I just preferred flatland as it’s more creative and each rider is different. You can invent different tricks, whereas other BMX styles are about who could do more of something or go bigger at something.”
From there, Keelan has gone from strength to strength, taking victory in a multitude of international and national competitions from Hungary to USA, and placing highly in just about any and every competition he’s entered.
Keelan now performs all over the world at different kinds of events for the biggest clients, and also runs his team of top BMX riders ‘Style Bicycle’, who he performs and organises events with. He has also recently starred in the Channel 4 programme ‘Concrete Circus’.
More information: http://www.lrsport.org/legacyroadshow