Getty Image / Christian Petersen
Like all of you, I’m sitting here stricken with utter shock and disbelief after hearing the news of the untimely passing of BMX icon Dave Mirra.
Probably like you as well, Dave Mirra was an enormous part of my childhood. I grew up playing his video game on Dreamcast, peeling down hometown dirt paths on my bike trying to emulate him, and spent many a summer evening glued to TV coverage of the X-Games pulling for the one and only “Miracle Man” to win yet another gold medal. Still, two helmets signed by Dave sit on a shelf in my childhood bedroom at my parents house. Today, they mean a whole lot more than I thought they ever could.
Mirra transgressed the threshold of being an action sports star. On the two occasions I met him when the X-Games were in Philadelphia, he was nothing short of gracious and lively for the myriad of fans out in support of him. That is how I will always choose to remember him. As the endearing legend he was.
As news broke of Mirra’s death, fellow X-Games athletes and fans alike took to the internet to share their condolences.
We will continue to update this story throughout the evening.
No doubt someone in heaven is learning how to pull the perfect tailwhip-flair tonight.
R.I.P. Dave Mirra (1974-2016).