« PREVIOUS: Quiz questions Nos. 61-74
This story appears in the Dec. 14 issue of ESPN The Magazine.
Anthony Napolitan's double front flip in BMX Big Air is the one thing everyone remembers from the x games. he recalls how he pulled it off.
“
He pushed the progression of BMX light-years into the future. Nothing can replace the feeling of pushing yourself through your fears regardless of the consequences and coming out successful.
”
-- BMX rider Kevin Robinson
"The week before the X Games, I went to Germany for a demo and tore my MCL. Most of the guys knew I was going to try the trick anyway, and before the event, Morgan Wade tried to stop me. 'Dude, please don't do it,' he said. I told him, 'Morgan, I've got it.' I didn't have any doubt.
"Actually, I wasn't even supposed to be at the X Games. There are seven BMXers in the world who can ride the Mega Ramp, and six were invited to the X Games. I was left out. But a month before the contest, Steve McCann broke an ankle, and I was in. I started thinking about the double front flip immediately. I'd stopped trying it a couple of years ago, but I came back to it in June and figured it out. I tried a different technique: I hit my back brake after I left the lip of the ramp, and it sped up my rotation. Once I landed it into the foam pit, I did that every day for a week. But the first time I landed it on a ramp was at the X Games.
"I had two goals going into the X Games: I wanted to be the first person to land the double front flip, and I wanted to be on the podium again. I accomplished only one of those goals, and I was bummed for a couple of days. Then people started coming up to me and saying, 'Man, that was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I can't believe you did that.' Then they'd ask, 'Who won the contest, anyway?'"