DC Celebrates With The Gold Standard 2009

Congrats to the DC team of athletes for their performance at last week’s X Games 15! Danny Way leads the list of successes with a Gold in the first-ever running of the Big Air Rail Jam on Friday night. Later Friday night, in BMX Big Air, Chad Kagy took Silver and Dave Mirra took Bronze in yet another event filled with new tricks and progression.

With every rider getting their tricks, Kagy sent a huge tailwhip backflip over the 70-foot gap to a huge 17-foot whip flair on the quarterpipe. Mirra followed that to take Bronze with his signature air traffic controller (a stylish no handed backflip 360), a trick only he can do. Mirra continues his reign as the most decorated athlete in X Games history.

For the first time in X Games history there was a tie for the win in Moto X Step Up, with defending champ Ricky Carmichael (RC) sharing the Gold with DC flow rider Ronnie Renner. With just two guys left—RC and Renner—the bar went up to 35 feet. Both riders knocked off the bar on their first two tries, so it went to a third round. Renner missed, and Carmichael slammed hard. Neither guy cleared the last height, so they shared the Gold.

Great finishes continued on Saturday with Kagy taking the Bronze in BMX Vert thanks to flairwhips, barspin tailwhips, and a ridiculous opposite flair whip. It was his second medal at X Games 15 after taking Silver in BMX Big Air on Friday night.

Nate Adams took yet another medal in Moto X Freestyle, this time a Bronze. Travis Pastrana closed out the weekend with a Silver in Rally Car Racing. Having taken Gold for the last three years straight, Pastrana has medaled in Rally Car Racing every single year it’s been at X Games.