Gilroy’s Chad Kagy won gold at the X Games’ BMX Big Air
event
A year after breaking his collarbone in a nasty practice session wreck, which put his left arm in a sling and kept him out of the Super Bowl of extreme sports, 29-year-old Gilroy native Chad Kagy showed he is back to form by winning a gold medal in the X Games’ BMX Big Air event and a silver medal in the BMX Vert this past weekend in Los Angeles.
The gold medal in the Big Air event – which forces the rider to take flight off a ramp and do a trick while clearing a huge gap, followed immediately by another trick on a quarterpipe – was especially satisfying for Kagy, whose injury forced him to miss all of last year’s X Games.
“I’ve been riding this thing for three years straight now, and feeling good on it, but when it came down to that particular day it just wasn’t my day,” Kagy told the Associated Press.
Last year’s wreck while practicing came in the same event he won gold in this year.
“I can’t tell you how happy I am right now,” he said.
Kagy just beat out Dave Mirra by scoring a 96 in the fourth and final round. Repeating the same trick he did in the third run, Kagy did a tailwhip backflip over the gap, and a 17-foot high flare whip on the quarterpipe to seal the victory. Kagy was more than impressed by the performance of Mirra, who had won a record 21 X Games medals entering the event, but had never competed in the Big Air.
“We’ve been trying to get Dave into this thing,” Kagy said. “He was throwing down ridiculous stuff.”
Kagy’s showmanship in the BMX Vert was equally thrilling, as he took second place behind Jamie Bestwick.
