Dave Mirra Biograph

DAVE MIRRA

Dave Mirra has won more medals in the X Games (a yearly competition held for extreme sports athletes) than any other athlete. What began as a way to pass time became the BMX biker's road to fame and wealth when Mirra turned pro at seventeen. In 1993 he was sidelined for six months after being hit by a drunk driver. The accident nearly killed him, but Mirra came back to win several X Games gold medals in the late 1990s. In 2005 Mirra won his record eighteenth X Games medal and won the ESPY Award for Best Male Action Sports Athlete of 2005.

 

BMX becomes a sport

David Michael Mirra was born on April 4, 1974, in the small New York town of Chittenango. His parents divorced when he was just five years old, and Dave and his brother, Tim, were raised by their dad. His mother, Linda, lived nearby in Syracuse and spent time with her sons on a regular basis.
As is typical of boys their age, Dave and Tim spent most of their free time riding their bikes around the neighborhood with their buddies. Small towns don't offer much else to do, and in the early 1980s, Mirra and his brother noticed a few of the other kids in town were riding BMX. (Although BMX stands for "bicycle motorcross," it also has meaning as a term used to describe a sport that includes racing on hilly or sandy tracks as well as on flat land using ramps and obstacles. Bikers use their 20-inch bikes to perform tricks and stunts throughout the race.) They used whatever they could find for jumps. Mirra and his friends were hooked. They began using wooden ramps, curbs, and dirt blocks as jumps. It was then that he began inventing his own gravity-defying stunts that eventually earned him the nickname "Miracle Boy."

 

Turns pro

The Dyno move proved to be a good one. Mirra finished seventh in the Expert class of the 1989 King of Vert finals. Soon he was touring the United States. In 1992, at the age of seventeen, Mirra turned pro. That summer he was featured on the June cover of Invert magazine and interviewed in the July BMX Plus! His sponsors included Hoffman Bikes, Airwalk, Homeless, and Standard Bikes. That was also the year Mirra invented some of his more famous tricks, including the backside weasel and frame-stand peg-pick.
One of Mirra's greatest moments came a year later when he beat freestyle champion Mat Hoffman in a half-pipe contest. It was Hoffman's first loss in three years. The freestyle industry hit a dry spell right after that feat. Supporters were pulling out and riders were on their own. Though the future looked bleak, Mirra continued to ride hard and dedicate his heart to the sport.
Life changed drastically in December 1993, when Mirra was hit by a drunk driver while crossing the street. The accident left the athlete with a fractured skull and torn shoulder. A blod clot formed in his brain, and no one was sure if Mirra would live. Recovery was maddeningly slow; it took six months of medication and time off from riding for Mirra to even begin to get his groove back. He told Willoughby, "It was a setback, but something I overcame. It doesn't even mess with me at all. In life there are obstacles you have to go through. Whatever it is, youover-come it eventually." But even then, there was so little happening in BMX around the country that he found it difficult to get motivated. Mirra moved to California in hopes of a new scene but moved back to New York within two weeks. But being home didn't feel right either. Looking back, Mirra considers 1994 a year of professional crisis. "It took me that long to figure out not to give up," he wrote on 23mag.com.
The one highlight of Mirra's career at that time was doing well at the Chicago Bicycle Stunt Series competition in 1994. He placed first in street and third in vert, worthwhile performances especially in light of the accident.

Dominates the X Games

In late 1994, ESPN announced it would host the first-ever X Games the following year. Athletes would compete in twenty-seven events in nine categories, including biking. Mirra competed and took home the silver medal. The X Games helped bring the world of BMX to a much larger audience, and soon the bike world couldn't get enough of Mirra. He was featured on numerous magazine covers and in interviews, all the while continuing to compete and dominate. In 1996, Mirra earned the title of World Champion of the pro vert. He was the X Games street champion that year as well and placed second in the pro vert. Mirra signed with Reebok that year, a move that increased his visibility and popularity.
The rider continued to squash the competition in the X Games throughout the rest of the 1990s. Between 1997 and 2000, Mirra won eight gold medals at the X Games, setting a record that remains untouched. In 1999 Mirra appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman. "Being on Letterman was just a whole other level. It was crazy, it felt as good as winning the

Dave Mirra flies high during a demonstration event in the half-pipe at the 2005 UCI BMX Supercross World Championships.