Freestyle Motocross Star Jeremy Lusk Dies After Crashing Backflip

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AP)?Jeremy Lusk, an American freestyle motocross racer, died of head injuries Tuesday after crashing while trying to land a backflip in competition. Jeremy was 24.

Though I usually reserve the Twangled video player for video that Team Twangled and Det-Chi Video creates, I felt this video to be moving enough to share with everyone. I have posted both the final backflip attempt by Jeremy Lusk, as well as his complete final run (in proper memory). Please pay a respectful tribute to our fallen comrade. (As of 10:42 PM CST the video is no longer available).

For those of you whom had the opportunity to see Jeremy fly in FMX, you know that he was an awesome rider an athlete. I had the privilege of seeing him on a couple of occasions.

Jeremy will be missed by motor sports freestylers and action sports athlete world wide. When an accident like this happens we all have to step back and adjust the way we think about our sports and our safety equipment.

God Speed Jeremy…

Jorge Ramirez, chief of the intensive care unit at Calderon Hospital where Lusk was taken, said the motocross racer suffered severe brain damage and a possible spinal cord injury.

Lusk won a gold medal at the 2008 X Games. He was injured Saturday night when he failed to complete a full rotation while attempting a Hart Attack backflip and slammed headfirst into the dirt. Lusk crashed in almost identical fashion in the freestyle semifinals at the 2007 X Games but was not hurt.

Jeremy Lusk had a successful 2008 season, winning Freestyle gold at the X Games and silver in Best Trick when he landed the first double-grab Hart Attack backflip. He won a bronze helmet in Freestyle at the Moto X World Championships in his hometown of San Diego.


Ramirez said Lusk died with his parents and his wife, Lauren, at his side.

?He was in a medicine-induced coma as a protective measure, and the medicine was being reduced to see how his organism responded,? he said. ?That didn?t mean he was going to wake up. He was in shock and that got worse last night, until he stopped responding and entered into cardiac and respiratory failure.?

Lusk lived in Temecula, Calif.

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