Upside down. Motocross freestyle

Flying at heights of several meters, dizzying stunts, tens of thousands of spectators, and the world’s largest companies as title sponsors—motocross freestyle is developing rapidly and even aggressively today. In just over ten years, this sport has gone from being a hobby for a few extreme individuals to an extremely popular and profitable segment of the global motorcycle industry.

Freestyle motocross can safely be called one of the youngest sports disciplines. Although no historian knows the exact date of its birth, everyone agrees that the set of tricks required for competitions and the uniform criteria for their evaluation were not formed until the late 1990s.

It all started with the desire of some motocross riders to shift the focus from speed to spectacle and, instead of a large number of small jumps, to perform one or more jumps that were as high and difficult as possible. At first, enthusiasts built ramps and jumps based on the model used in BMX and tried to perform extreme cycling tricks on motorcycles, but over time, these were replaced by much more complex “aerobatic” figures.

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A landmark event in the history of freestyle motocross took place in 2000, when Carey Hart performed a backflip for the first time at the Gravity Games extreme contest. Immediately after landing, the athlete fell, sparking numerous debates about whether he had performed the most difficult element or “almost performed” it. However, one thing is indisputable: it was the backflip in its various variations that became the hallmark of freestyle motocross, and the ability to perform it became a kind of passport to the world elite.

Backflips and other tricks

In the mid-1990s, backflips, which were not a big problem for professional BMX riders, were considered an impossible task among motorcyclists. The situation changed only in 1998, when the first film of the Children of a Metal God trilogy, which became a cult classic in the world of motocross, was released. The film’s characters’ attempts to perform a backflip by jumping off a ramp into water sparked fierce debate among bikers about the possibility of successfully completing this stunt on land, with the most desperate trying to prove their point personally.

There were many injuries, and the result only appeared in 2000, when Carey Hart demonstrated his historic jump on a 90-kilogram motorcycle with a 250-cubic-centimeter engine. In the same year, several attempts were made to surpass Hart’s achievement, one of which was made by Travis Pastrana at the X Games. The rider lost his balance and broke his leg in the fall. The glory of being the first motorcyclist to successfully perform the trick without injury went to Caleb Wyatt, who did it in 2001.

The backflip, which was considered an almost impossible trick ten years ago, can now be performed by any serious rider. Moreover, it is no longer possible to win a competition with just a backflip. Therefore, high-class freestyle motorcyclists are forced to constantly come up with more and more sophisticated combinations and invent their own “aerobatic figures.”

However, Travis Pastrana also made history with a much more impressive achievement: on August 6, 2006, at the X Games, he performed a double backflip for the first time in competition. True, he immediately called his act “insane” and promised not to repeat it. Pastrana kept his word, but another daredevil successfully performed a double backflip. In 2007 and 2008, Scott Murray pulled off the stunt several times. And at the 2008 Summer X Games, Jim DeChamp set a new goal for freestyle motorcyclists by attempting a forward somersault. The attempt ended in the hospital, but as they say, every cloud has a silver lining.