CNN
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Motorcycle racing is dangerous. However, within the sport there is one category where the head and (fractured) shoulders are sitting above others.
Supercross is an epic form of dirt bike race that is unfolding in the stadium, with wild jumps, eye-lengthening speed and fighting competition.
Few riders embody the sport and its elements more than Austin Faulkner, the most successful rider in the 250SX class. Missouri natives are approaching, but painful on-track accidents have always been in the way.
Faulkner tells CNN Sports that no sport has a blend of ingredients that Supercross offers, in terms of speed, acrobatics and general entertainment factors.
“Like the UFC combat, there’s the brutality and the awfulness of combat. And then you have the physicality of a triathlete. You have to be in that good shape. You need to get injured and be prepared to go to war.”
The 26-year-old speaks to CNN at the headquarters of Triumph Racing America in the picturesque countryside south of Atlanta, Georgia, and when he is injured in an addle, he begins to be gestured on various parts of his body.
“I’m just going through them. I’ve done these collarbone three times, I’ve done these collarbone twice. I broke this wrist, I broke my hips, I broke my sockets on my waist. When I was younger, I broke my ankles and growth plates…”
This list goes on and on, so it’s completely understandable that Faulkner has to think about it. In fact, here are the parts of the bones and crushed body that are much more broken than there is space listed here:
“I was torn twice on my shoulder, torn it, and I retired again. I actually had four surgeries on this shoulder, from two collarbone and two lips, 18 months, and I compressed my back a few years ago.
These are just a few of the injuries this extraordinary competitor overcomes in his career. Faulkner takes almost three minutes to broadcast them all. He removed a portion of the pancreas along with the spleen.
However, the most serious setbacks had no direct connection to the race at all. In fact, it was not discovered that the rider had been inspected after a bad crash.
“After a crash where I broke my back and shoulder and knocked out for about five minutes last year, they were scanning my head and found out I had something called an AVM (artery malformation),” explains Faulkner. “And I actually had to do brain surgery to get rid of it.”
AVM is a tangle of blood vessels that usually form during fetal development and lead to irregular connections between arteries and veins in the brain. Many people born with AVM live normal lives without realizing it, but such deformities are dangerous and fatal if left untreated.
Faulkner admits that it was shocking to learn that brain surgery was necessary.
“I did it all, but I did it all, but my knees, shoulders, collarbone, wrists, ankles, everything like that,” he tells CNN.
The surgery itself was a relatively routine, but intimidating outlook.
“They basically cut me from here out here,” explains Faulkner, gestures across his hairline. “(They) essentially had to pull the front of my brain a bit off my skull, so they could get to work on what they were trying to do.”
Another troubling aspect of surgery was recovery, he says.
“I honestly didn’t really know what it meant for my career. Like all other injuries, you’re back, ACL, six months, fractures, six to eight weeks, they know they can give you a time frame,” Faulkner continues.
“This is a bit of ‘We don’t know’ So it was pretty scary like that, but I didn’t say anything (my career), it was just scared. Basically, it was scary to have my brain open. ”
However, after the event, perhaps not surprising, given the track record of riders recovering from injuries, the Forkner’s path to the saddle was relatively smooth and quick.
“If I could have gone to the gym two weeks later, I would probably go to the gym two weeks later,” he smiles. “I was basically limited so the doctor didn’t want me to raise my heart rate and really run blood, so he said, “We need to cool down because AVM can cause seizures, strokes, and aneurysms.”
However, not long after returning to fitness, Faulkner was uprooted from California, spending most of his career, leaving the Kawasaki team to move to Georgia, joining a relative rookie, making big decisions to dirt bike races and win.
But Missouri-born Richards was really pleased to leave California behind. “From here on there was a huge change from California, and I like how Georgia is better than California.
“It has a small town in the Midwest, you know, we’re here. This reminds me of the Midwest, the ponds, the green grass I grew up in. I’m in my home more here than I was in California.”
The move also meant adapting to an entirely new bike. “I don’t think you can understand exactly how much work it takes to set up a bike. The best way you can explain to someone is the fork or front suspension on your bike, if you move 0.5 mm.
“Suppose you have 10-12 turns on your track. You could get a bike better in a certain section, or 10 seconds per turn. It’s 10 turns, 1 second laps. There’s a lot of laps.”
Jeremy Coker, general manager of Triumph Racing America, screams about Forkner’s talent, but admits that his team is taking the risk of carrying him.
“Austin Faulkner has a unique talent. If you ask the rider, the competitors he races, they’ll probably say he’s the most talented and fastest rider,” he tells CNN.
“I think all the injuries he injured, especially the brain damage, was a big setback for him,” continues Coker. “I don’t think at that point people were just scared to hire him with the fact that he might not be as fast as he once was.
“But the factor of fear is – is this a risk we willing to take? If he crashes, can he suffer a worse injury? As far as you know, can he kill him?
But the biggest change for Faulkner came when he and his wife, model and influencer Riley Faulkner, celebrated the arrival of his son, Atlas Hope, in March this year.
Fatherhood and a new perspective
Ryder admits that his father has already changed him.
“I love my little boy more than anything. Everyone says that, and it changes… As long as you realize that your riding and stuff like that changes and yes, dirt bikes are my job and they are my life, that’s changed,” Faulkner says.
“Race is important now, because (racing) is my job, but I can have a good day on the track, a bad day on the track, a go home, and hug a little boy, that doesn’t matter.
“It takes the extra pressure to pull myself apart, like, ‘Hey, if I win, if I’m the last time I’ll go home and hold the boy and everything’s fine.’ ”
He also acknowledges that his new responsibility lies in his mind on the truck: “It’s like this year’s fight, fighting against “This year, I need to go home. I need to be safe for my wife and children.” ”
“But at the same time, you cannot ride by staying on top of you. You will not ride naturally when you have something like that, so “Be careful, you cannot ride that way” – it is a process. ”
Perhaps most notable about being a father was new insights into his own relationship with his parents.
“To be honest, one of the biggest things about having a child right now is that it was having to deal with my parents and how upset it was that they had to deal with me,” Faulkner says.
“If mom has seen her in a race, she is a disaster watching a race with the race and she gets surprised and grabs someone, but now I understand that she has to upset her to get her to see me.
Does he encourage his son Atlas to follow in his footsteps?
“It’s hard to say no to him,” Faulkner smiles, “I’m going to advise him to be a professional dirt bike rider.
“In certain respects, I can get a bit bitter about sports. Well, it gave me a great life and I met all my friends, my wife, everyone I know that I basically met through dirt bikes, but I also saw many dark sides of the sport.
“But a lot of it comes from professional dirt bike racing that pushes restrictions every day, which is difficult.
