Front Flips on Bikes Are Difficult

Jim DeChamp is a survivor, he ain't gone give up, he ain't gone stop: he gone crash harder.
That's the professional stunt rider missing a front flip at this year's X-Games. It may not look like an effective front bail, as he lands flat on his back. Fortunately, you would be incorrect, as he walked off in front of the cameras, apparently unscathed from the fall. Then, if you corrected your assumption and assumed walking off meant all was fine and hunky-dory, you'd be incorrect again, because he walked off the floor of the competition with a fractured vertebra in his back and then collapsed backstage.

DeChamp lay still for a few minutes before walking off under his own power. What television viewers and those in attendance didn't see was DeChamp collapsing afterward in the athlete area.

"He said, 'Look, I've got to get up, I'm going to walk out of here,' " said Pastrana, who was by his side. "Then, he's like, 'cameras off?' I said, 'Yep,' and he just fell down and said, 'Take me to the hospital.' "

DeChamp's bail really is an improvement on his earlier work. We're quite serious about that--click after the jump for evidence of his avant-garde attempt at landing a front flip on a bike in 2007.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.