Jeremy Lusk Fatally Injured

Jeremy Lusk, "The Pitbull" in Fatal Crash

Jeremy Lusk, nicknamed "The Pitbull," known for his daredevil performances in the sport of freestyle motocross, suffered a fatal head injury on Saturday, Feb. 7, 2009, while performing at a competition in San Jose, Costa Rica. Born in San Diego in 1984, Lusk began riding motorcycles at the age of 3 and turned pro at 19. Of the brief number of years since turning pro, 2008 had been his most successful and his future with the sport looked bright. At the ’08 XGames freestyle motocross competition, Lusk came away with a gold and silver medal for the FMX best-trick doing a double-grab Hart Attack backflip. That same year, Lusk also entered the X Games Mexico competition and won two gold medals there, as well as a bronze helmet in Freestyle at the Moto X World Championships.  The General Manager and VP of the X Games franchise, Chris Stiepock, stated that Lusk "had emerged as one of the world’s best freestyle moto riders." 

On Saturday, while attempting to land after doing a back-flip trick over a 100-foot jump, Lusk was unable to complete the maneuveur and landed headfirst on the landing ramp. This is a trick that Lusk had done successfully many times before. While performing in 2007 at the X Games in Carson, Lusk had experienced a similar crash. He was able to walk away from the that crash,  in San Jose there would be no such happy ending. After the accident, Lusk was rushed to Calderon Guardia Hospital in San Jose, where he was put into a medically-induced coma as a protective measure because of severe brain swelling.  Jorge Ramirez, chief of intensive care at Calderon Hospital stated that Lusk had suffered severe damage to his brain and possibly spinal cord injury.  About his condition at the time of death, Ramirez stated, "…the medicine was being reduced to see how his body responded. That didn’t mean he was going to wake up. He was in shock and that got worse last night, until he stopped responding and entered into cardiac and respiratory failure."

Loss to Freestyle Motocross Community

For anyone who’s a fan and has watched any of the freestyle motocross tricks, it is something to watch and evident that there is substantial risk involved for the rider. X Games Senior VP Rick Alessandri stated, "When a professional athlete takes the field of play, whether they’re a bull rider, motocross rider or equestrian, they understand that (death) can happen on any given day to any athlete."  Interesting to note is that while there are frequent injuries sustained by these talented riders, Jeremy Lusk is the first known death to take place in either the Dew Tour or the X Games.

Upon being notified of the accident, Lusk’s wife, in-laws, and parents immediately flew to Costa Rica and were at his side when he died on Tuesday, January, 11, 2009. Lusk was only 24. Below is a tribute video: