Aches, pains part of X Games

ASPEN, Colo. -- Brian Deegan realized he wasn't going to complete the backflip, so he let go of his bike. One problem: He was still nearly 40 feet in the air.

To the gasps of the crowd, Deegan landed with a thud, breaking both wrists and his leg.

Welcome to Moto X, an event considered dangerous even among the risk-taking crowd at Winter X Games.

"Those guys are crazy," snowboarder Andy Finch said. "But I love watching them."

It's easy to see the appeal.

An odd combination of motorcycles and snow, Moto X features riders who do tricks and flips off ramps that would make Evil Knievel proud.

Some choose to do backflips over a 35-foot gap, while others sidesaddle their bikes or let go of the handlebars over a 90-foot gap. The more daring riders, like Deegan and 2004 champ Caleb Wyatt, do flips off the big ramp.

The fans certainly eat it up, lining the course more than a dozen deep and cheering wildly as the sounds of Metallica and Korn blare through loudspeakers.

The pain is bigger, too.

There are certainly injuries in other Winter X events. Snowboarder Gretchen Bleiler and skier Candide Thovex, gold medalists at the 2003 Winter X Games, missed this year's event with knee injuries.

But injuries in Moto X tend to be more traumatic.

While the twisting and turning in snowboarding and skiing lead to sprains and tears, wrestling with a 250-pound motorcycle 40 feet in the air tends to cause broken bones and head trauma.

"We're really looking at a class of athletes that's like an NFL football player," said Dr. Robert Waskowitz, one of Winter X's onsite physicians. "We're talking high impact, a lot of velocity with tremendous force versus some of the other disciplined athletes where it's more of a twisting mechanism injury."

Deegan sure felt the impact in Saturday's crash.

He'll spend the rest of this week in the hospital and could be out of competition up to six months after having pins put in both wrists and a plate in his leg, which was broken just below the hip.

But as bad as it was, the show kept rolling.

While doctors stabilized Deegan's injuries for nearly 15 minutes at the bottom of the track, Moto X king Mike Metzger was at the top waiting his turn. Seconds after Deegan was taken off on a sled, Metzger landed a near-perfect backflip -- just a few feet from where Deegan crashed.

"You really can't think about that stuff," Metzger said. "You have to concentrate on what you're doing or you'll end up getting hurt, too."

And Metzger knows all about injuries.

Known as "The Godfather" for creating freestyle riding, he's won three Moto X golds and finished second to Wyatt this year.

But it's come with a price.

By Metzger's estimation, he's had at least one injury for each of his 28 years. That includes more than a dozen concussions, three broken backs, three broken femurs -- "breaking the biggest bone in your body isn't fun, for sure" -- and metal plates in his forearm.

Metzger initially didn't sign up for this year's Winter X Games because of two serious concussions last year, but changed his mind four days before the event after Chuck Caruthers broke his ankle during practice.

"It's just part of the job, I guess," Metzger said with a shrug. "You've got to deal with the pain when you break something and just wait to feel better." Notes: Wyatt won despite crashing on his second run. He had a 92.80 with a no-hands, no-feet backflip on his first attempt, but shorted his landing in trying it a second time. Wyatt lay on the ice for several minutes before getting up and waving to the crowd. ... Nate Holland and Reggie Crist won gold in UltraCross, a relay race of snowboarding and skiing. The pair edged Lars Lewen and Xavier de le Rue by inches. ... Lindsey Jacobellis, of Danbury, Conn., jumped out to an early lead and coasted to her second straight gold in Snowboarder X. ... Ueli Kestenholz, of Thun, Sweden, also repeated as Snowboarder X champion, but his win wasn't as easy. He held off Seth Wescott, of Kingfield, Maine, beating him by just over a second. ... Sunday's snowy weather was followed by frigid temperatures on Monday. It didn't slow down the crowds. The Moto X course was lined with thousands of people and the finals in men's Snowboarder Superpipe had the same mosh-pit atmosphere as the women's finals Saturday night. ... Steve Fisher won the men's Superpipe with a 93.33 on his first run, which held up through three rounds. Shaun White, the defending champion and leader after the preliminary round, sat out the finals after spraining his knee during a practice run.

Copyright C 2004 Deseret News Publishing Co.
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.