Most athletes measure their success by how many medals they've won, or whether they win or lose, but for freeriders Joe Schwartz, JJ Desmoreaux and Chad Onyschuk, success is measured only by 'how big your smile is.'

The three mountain bike gurus, along with Brandon Barker, are in Whitehorse for a freeride dirt jump workshop this weekend, put on by the VeloNorth Cycling Club in partnership with the City of Whitehorse.

When they stepped off the plane Thursday afternoon, the three men were obviously excited to be in the Yukon but were also relaxed and easygoing, as you would expect from athletes who prefer to call their sport 'funriding'.

All of them started out mountain biking years ago in their B.C. hometowns Schwartz in Nelson and Desmoreaux and Onyschuk in Squamish before eventually trying downhill riding and then adding some jumps and some tricks. In the last couple of years, they've been joined full force by thousands of athletes in B.C., especially around the Whistler area.

It's popular enough now that the three run the Whistler Summer Gravity Camp every year, which is where they met VeloNorth director Christine Smith.

Smith and her husband took their daughter and another Yukon youngster to the Whistler camp last year, and immediately noticed the impact on their daughter's self esteem.

'She blossomed after that,' said Smith. 'I just though, every kid in the Yukon deserves this experience. We want our kids to have lots of opportunities.'

Still, it wasn't until Smith ran into women's mountain bike rider Katrina Strand, who told them about her camps and offered them a card (Strand will be coming to the Yukon next month for a women's camp, although details have not yet been announced), that the idea for this weekend's camp was born.

Of course, putting on a clinic involves a lot of time and a lot of money, and it was the City of Whitehorse Parks and Recreation department that stepped up to the plate first to help out.

'Because we could see it coming,' said parks and rec employee Kate Moylan, when asked why the city got on board. 'The sport itself is pretty visible in the community, so we decided to support it. It wasn't easy because it's viewed as a risk sport, but we felt good role models and more training provided better support than just turning your back on it.'

And when it comes to good role models, look no further than the four hitting the trails this weekend, said Smith.

'They are so highly skilled and humble,' said Smith of the four freeriders running the camp. 'It's really their attitudes that you want the kids to look up to. And if you watch these guys ride...your mouth would drop.

'These are all-around good guys.'

Not to mention the fact they do have somewhat of a celebrity status, which is always attractive to young kids interested in the sport. Schwartz, Desmoreaux and Onyschuk have done numerous videos, including New World Disorder, The Collective, Shift and North Shore Series.

But for them, it's not about the videos as much as it is the experience of the sport, which Desmoreaux called a great way to express yourself. And with travel resumes including places such as the Swiss Alps, Costa Rica and Australia, as well as all over North America, it's easy to see why youth get hooked.

'You get to travel, meet amazing people and see amazing places,' said Desmoreaux. 'And there are no rules.'

'There are a lot of new opportunities, too, for people like us,' said Onyschuk. 'There's more avenues than just being a poster boy.'

One of those avenues is being able to give back to the community, something which they all take seriously and do often with their various camps and clinics.

'That's the coolest thing about this,' stated Schwartz. 'We just want to have fun (with the kids in the camp) and ride bikes. We'll teach them the fundamentals.'

'We all share the same passion,' added Onyschuk. 'We want to help them realize the potential of the trails here and appreciate what they have.'

In fact, freeriding may be one of the only sports where it doesn't matter how small of a town you live in, or how isolated you are from other cities you can still be just as successful if you have the bike, the trails and the work ethic.

'It's just how passionate you are about what you do,' said Desmoreaux. 'Where there's a will, there's a way.'

While there are already numerous trails in the Whitehorse-area suitable for freeriding, the rising popularity of the sport may call for more trails or a bike park in the future. In B.C., there are already bike parts at a lot of resorts, with ski hills like Whistler leaving their chairlifts running in the summer.

'This year, it's been amazing how many areas in B.C. are expanding on their bike parks,' said Schwartz. 'Whistler led the way a couple years ago and now everyone is following suit.'

While Mount Sima isn't planning summer hours any time soon, Moylan said it is possible Whitehorse may see more freeride clinics and programs in the future, especially since all signs point to a huge success this weekend the maximum number of participants have signed up for the camp.

'It definitely has sparked interest in the community and people are asking for more and more,' she said. 'It's not unlike skateboarding was years ago.

'Our role is to facilitate these kinds of interests in the community, but not necessarily take on all of it in the long haul.'

Smith said VeloNorth's mandate is to promote any recreational cycling activity for any skill level, but it is a matter of man power as to whether they will put on more camps in the future.

'We want things like this to happen, but any nonprofit organization suffers from lack of volunteers. You want to just get it going and then hope they can do it themselves.

'Maybe private businesses or organizations will take it on, and pay for more people to come up.'

For now, both Smith and Moylan will be happy if the kids involved in this camp bump up their skills a couple notched and build on their confidence. And of course, safety is always a big issue. That's one of the things Smith said will be highlighted at the camp by the four visitors.

'Teaching flows, kids talk to other kids,' said Smith. 'We want them to emphasize the safety of proper trail building, as well as wearing proper body armour.'

'The number one goal for us would be safety,' agreed Moylan. 'We want people coming out of it without too many cuts and bruises. And of course, as Joe (Schwartz) so aptly put it, with big smiles on their face, having fun.'

Ah yes, fun. A word that came up on more than one occasion during the interview with three of the B.C. foursome (Barker was scheduled to arrive on a later flight Thursday).

'It's so repetitive, but it really is the key,' stated Onyschuk.