FREESTYLE
Nineteen-year-old Moto X phenom Travis Pastrana, of Annapolis, MD, took top honors at the Moto X Freestyle final Saturday. Riding with a torn ACL and LCL, Pastrana shocked the crowd by landing his first ever 360 backflip at X Games Moto X Freestyle competition.
At nineteen, Pastrana is no stranger to the winner’s circle. After two years of not competing at X Games due to injury, Pastrana earned his fourth X Games Moto X Freestyle gold medal, his first since X Games VII in 2001. Pastrana was one of the very first riders on the course at practice, and was the very last to leave. The extra work paid off for him, as he landed a barrage of seemingly impossible aerials including a no-handed cliffhanger, a sidewinder Fred Flinstone, and two traditional backflips before he landed the 360 backflip. Pastrana put up a winning score of 94.67, beating out an elite field of Moto X athletes just one week before his scheduled surgery on his injured right knee.
When asked before the competition about his strengths and weaknesses, Pastrana said, “My strengths and weaknesses are the same: I’ve got the willingness and stupidity to try anything. If I think it’s even remotely possible, I’ll do it.”
“I was working on the trick for a month with Carey Hart,” said Pastrana about the 360 backflip. “I knew if I hit the 360, it was gold. Man, this is the best feeling in the world.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on August 18, 2003. Read the original PDF.