As someone who experienced their formidable teenage years in the late 1990s/early 2000s, I had an almost unhealthy obsession with extreme sports. I had more Teck Deck fingerboards than passing grades on class assignments. I played skateboarding, BMX, and snowboarding video games at the expense of chores. I wore tattered bootcut jeans and t-shirts to accent my unruly hair and anti-establishment attitude. I watched the X-Games with the same enthusiasm that Fundamentalist Christians attend church.
With that in mind, it is with a heavy heart that I announce that BMX legend Dave Mirra, who I believe to be the most impressive man to ever ride a bicycle, was found dead Thursday. It appears he has committed suicide.
Mirra was discovered in a truck in Greenville, N.C. by police, who said he had been visiting friends in the area. Police say he committed suicide via an “apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.”
Mirra had moved to Greenville in the 1990s and helped turn it into “Protown,” primarily due to the amount of professional BMX riders that have come out of the city.
Allen Thomas, Greenville’s mayor, said of Mirra:
“‘We mourn the loss today of a great friend and wonderful human being who touched the lives of so many around the world with his gift,” Thomas said. ‘He called Greenville, North Carolina home and was as humble a guy talking with kids on a street corner about bikes as he was in his element on the world stage. A young life with so much to offer was taken too soon.'”
Dave Mirra was as prolific an athlete as they come. He was a recipient of 24 X-Games medals, a record he held alone until 2013 when it was tied by pro skateboarder Bob Burnquist. 14 of those medals were gold. He also hosted two seasons of MTV’s Real World/Road Rules Challenge. He was also featured in a series of BMX video games created in the same vein as Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.
After leaving professional BMX, Mirra focused his competitive spirit on triathlons and Ironman competitions. He also drove for the Subaru rally car racing team.
Mirra’s friend and fellow BMX legend T.J. Lavin told TMZ:
“I just wish he would have called me. I would have jumped on a plane in a second. There’s always another way.”
Dave Mirra is survived by his wife and two children. He was 41.
