PHILADELPHIA — They had dreams of gold medals until Cirque du Soleil's Volta came calling.
"We didn't know how it was going to work," says Artistic Director Michael Smith. "We thought it might just be a complete train wreck."
Smith risked his reputation on a band of two-wheeled renegades.
"The first couple of months there was a huge question mark," Smith says. "Are we really climbing a slippery pole here? Because I don't think it's ever going to happen."
For their first-ever BMX act, Cirque recruited some of the world's top athletes, including pro rider Jeffrey Whaley.
These guys are known as mavericks with a reputation for for going solo.
Whaley says, "When I was competing I was alone. Alone on a ramp."
Whaley and his fellow riders had to turn stunt cycling into a team sport.
"The biggest issue was to trust each other," he says.
They also had to transform themselves from athletes into artists.
"The light, the costume," Whaley says. "It's all an environment that we're not used to it."
Smith laughs. "They were so lost and just so disoriented. We're asking them to dance, we're asking them to act, we're asking them to do all sorts of things way, way, way out of their comfort zone."
Whaley says it was a bit of a culture clash at first. "Getting told what to do at what time, it was a big learning experience. We'd always show up at last minute, running, 'Hey, sorry, we were outside doing nothing.'"
But then something clicked.
"We got used to it," Whaley recalls.
Whaley says his ragtag team of riders finally feel like they've earned the right to call themselves artists.
"It was a long journey but a good journey."