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U.S. BMX Racer Connor Fields To Be Released From A Tokyo Hospital After Olympic Crash

Connor Fields of Team USA leads other riders in the men's BMX semifinal on July 30 at the Tokyo Olympics. He would crash later, suffering a brain hemorrhage and broken rib.
Ezra Shaw
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Connor Fields of Team USA leads other riders in the men's BMX semifinal on July 30 at the Tokyo Olympics. He would crash later, suffering a brain hemorrhage and broken rib.

TOKYO — American BMX racer and three-time Olympian Connor Fields is expected to be released from a Tokyo hospital on Thursday and fly home to the United States.

Fields, who won a gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games, was racing in an Olympic BMX semifinal heat on July 30 when he crashed face first and suffered a brain hemorrhage and broken rib.

He was rushed to a local hospital where he's been under the care of local physicians and American medical staff with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Committee. The chief medical doctor of the USOPC shared the news of his release.

Fields will now return to Henderson, Nev. and start rehabilitation. With COVID restrictions, none of his family could get to Japan to be with him and were getting updates from U.S. Olympic officials. Fields' father, Mike, told USA Today Sports his son has been doing well.

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Leila Fadel is a national correspondent for NPR based in Los Angeles, covering issues of culture, diversity, and race.