The X Games events usually consist of skateboarding, skiing, snowboarding, and BMX biking. Many athletes who compete at X Games also compete in world championships or represent their countries in the Olympics for their particular sport. The most popular sport in X Games is motorcross. The most memorable moment in motocross was when Travis Pastrana landed the first double backflip in motocross history in 2006. The next X Games will be held here in Ventura.

It was an evening in July 2006. The Beavers, Oregon State University’s baseball team, had recently won the College World Series. One of the team’s pitchers, Rob Summers, 20, was retrieving his gym bag from his parked car when another car hit him. “The car then drove off, leaving me there with no help,” says Summers. 

“They told me that I had no hope,” says Summers. “My comment was, ‘You don’t know me very well. I’m going to fight until I get well again.’” 

Five years later, Summers regained the ability to stand and could take steps on a treadmill. His recovery “remains unprecedented,” European researchers commented in the British medical journal The Lancet. “We are entering a new era.”