The X-Factor

With the Olympics just days away, everyone is looking forward to the stories of huge sacrifices, competition, and overcoming adversity but until then, I dare say you can already find this going on.

When I say skaters, many of us think of those stupid punk kids (man am I starting to sound old) who hang around movie theaters or malls, or anywhere but the skate-parks cities often build for them. We don't generally think of olympic quality athletes. Let me share with you what I saw recently while watching the X-Games. The video is of Danny Way, a skateboarder who in this particular instance is competing in the "Big Air" competition in which he skates straight down one side of a quarter pipe, ramps over a large gap, then skates straight up another quarter pipe where you would try to get "big air" and do a trick. On his way down from 20+ feet of air, he clips his leg on the wall and tumbles down the quarterpipe. After spending some time with the paramedics, he is able to limp his way out of the stadium but decides he is still going to compete in his final jump. He literally limps back to the top of the ramp to start his final run! Talk about determination! He goes on to win the silver in this competition after what was described as the "second worst fall in x-games history".