Monday, July 26, 2010 9:51am PDT

Paraplegic Sampie Erasmus Competes in Moto X at X Games

By: Chris Worden


Sampie Erasmus made the trip from South Africa to compete in the 2010 ESPN X Games Moto X Super X Adaptive on his specially modified CRF250X. Erasmus is a T4 paraplegic who is confined to a wheelchair at all times, with the exception of when he is riding his dirt bike. "This is the only thing that I can really do without a wheelchair. I can play wheelchair basketball, but it doesn't give me the same rush as this," said Erasmus who broke his back competing in the 2004 Nationals in South Africa.

Erasmus recently won the 2010 Extremity Games Limb-Difference Gold medal at Baja Acres motocross facility in Michigan, May 29, 2010, following his 2009 Extremity Games Bronze win. He competed in the 2009 X Games where he was named the Most Valuable Rider. "I was the 2nd paraplegic over the line, and 6th place overall at last year's X Games," explained Erasmus. "This year there will be two sets of medals for the Adaptive Moto X between the limb-loss and the limb-difference class. It should add more excitement with a race inside a race."

"I am super excited, all charged up and ready to go!" said Erasmus. "The hardest part will be the start. I need a good start. I will be on the line with 450's and I only have a 250, plus I have to have someone hold me up on the line, and we have to be perfectly balanced to get a good start."

The Adaptive Moto-X games will be held on Thursday, July 29, 2010 at the L.A. Coliseum in Los Angeles, CA. For a schedule of the 2010 Summer X-Games visit http://espn.go.com/action/xgames

FEATURED NEWS

Roost Report: Hangtown to Freestone

Roost Report: Hangtown to Freestone

Stewart showed up at Hangtown looking calm, cool, collected, kicked some butt and took names

The biggest story leading up to the season opener of the Lucas Oil Motocross Championship circled around one James Stewart. Everyone asked, "Will he kick some butt, will he choke, was his problem with SX all in his head or has he landed on his head too many times, will the Suzuki be his saving grace, if he was so fond of the Suzuki starting last year, why did he ride for another team if he says he does not do it for the money," and a slew of other questions. Many of those questions may..

2 Comments

 1-2 of 2

nate underwood

Posted by nate underwood July 27, 2010 02:33am PDTReply | Report Abuse

Wow, this guy is awesome, it makes me smile when I see something like that. Glad he didn't give up his sport and goes out there and rides. And I gotta say, he does have style and makes it look so easy sitting down. Maybe some Pro's can learn a little from him how to seat bounce ;)

Go Sampie...respect!

maxrouda

Posted by maxrouda July 30, 2010 11:40am PDTReply | Report Abuse

I have been riding dirt bikes 2 times and street for 2 years so far. I got to say your talent is amazing. I dont think I will ever muster up enough guts to jump that high and far. keep going big and I wish you good luck in the upcoming X-games Sample.

Add a Comment

2000 characters left. 2000 total.