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| Personal information | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Full name | Stephen Murray | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | British | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 9 January 1980 Newcastle, England | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 6 ft 0 in (183 cm) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 208 lb (94 kg) | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | Melissa Murray | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 2 sons | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Website | www | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | BMX Dirt | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| Disability | Paralysis | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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| Updated on 14 December 2016 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Stephen Murray (born 9 January 1980) is an English former BMX Dirt rider.
On Friday 22 June 2007, at the AST Dew Tour BMX Dirt Finals in Baltimore, Murray took a catastrophic fall attempting a double backflip on the final jump in the dirt section. He suffered career-ending injuries to his spinal cord and vertebrae, and became paralyzed below the shoulders. Reports have shown that he can shrug his shoulders, move his toes, his index fingers, and his thumbs. [1]
Murray was a seven-time expert British champion and six-time UK National champion before the age of 16. During his professional BMX career, he was known for his double back flips (the first rider to land in competition), 360 back flips, and turndown back flips. He won the gold medal in BMX Dirt in the Summer 2001 X Games and won gold medals in BMX Dirt at the Gravity Games in back-to-back years (2001 and 2002). He was nominated for ESPN 'BMX rider of the year'.
Since the accident, Murray worked closely with the doctor who treated Christopher Reeve after the actor's accident left him quadriplegic. He now has limited movement in his toes and is also gaining more movements in his hands. He hopes to move to a hand-operated wheelchair in the future.
He is no longer married, but has full custody of his two sons. He resides in Evesham, England.
Murray appeared on the True Geordie Podcast to talk openly about his experience, and the journey of his life. His motivations and dealing with the crash were explored as well.
In 2017, he published a book about his life: Staying Strong: An Immensely Human Story (with John F. McDonald, Lee Martin). [2]
| YEAR | X GAMES | EVENTS | RANK | MEDAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Summer X Games VII | BMX Dirt | 1st |  |
| 2002 | Summer X Games VIII | BMX Dirt | 11th | |
| 2003 | Summer X Games IX | BMX Dirt | 4th | |
| 2004 | Summer X Games X | BMX Dirt | 10th |
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Ryan Nyquist is an American professional BMX rider with 16 X Games medals, 39 X Games competition starts and 60 Dew Tour finals appearances. Nyquist is considered one of the greatest and diversely skilled BMX riders ever. Nyquist has won numerous gold medals in the X Games Dirt Jumping & Bike Park events. Recently Nyquist has had an interest in freeride mountain biking and has been training in mountain biking as well as BMX. He currently rides for Haro Bikes, Vans Shoes, Rockstar Energy Drink, and The Jiffy Market of Los Gatos.
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Cheri Elliott is an American former champion female bicycle motocross (BMX) racer in the 1980s, and a champion Downhill and Slalom mountain bike racer in the 1990s and early 2000s. During her BMX career, she spent most of her racing career on the national circuit with the Skyway Recreation factory team. She had a relatively short BMX career, but she is a four-time national champion and four-time world champion, including three consecutive National Number One girl-racer titles for the American Bicycle Association (ABA) from 1983 through 1985. She also held the regional UBR Number one girl racer title in 1982. She was the first female racer inducted into the ABA BMX Hall of Fame in 1989, and the first female BMX racer inducted into the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame in 2008.
Ryan Guettler is a BMX Dirt and Freestyle rider from Beenleigh, Australia. Making his international debut at the 2001 Asian X Games alongside Colin MacKay and Jesse Boughton, Guettler won a silver medal, Colin won a bronze medal and Jesse took the gold. Guettler moved to U.S. appearing in the Global X Games, where he represented Australia.
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Brian Keith Foster is an American professional bicycle motocross (BMX) rider whose prime competitive years were from 1992 to 2000. Had the nicknames "Blue Falcon", BF" and "Dirt" Brian Foster is one half of one of those sibling combinations that every so often that appear in BMX, usually brothers and along with his brother Alan they were the Mid School era's answer to Old School's *Brent & Brian Patterson and Eddy & Mike King. While neither gained as many titles in racing either collectively or individually as the Pattersons or the Kings, they soon became respected pioneers and champions in the then new recognized BMX sub discipline of Dirt Jumping that began as an organized sport in 1989.
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