Travis Pastrana interview
BY CHRIS JONNUM
V\I
hat is it with sport's current mania for
placing its hopes on the shoulders of
young men? The NBA's Kobe Bryant, NASCAR's
Jeff Gordon, professional golfing's Tiger Woods all were icons before even starting in their respective professional realms, and it looks as if the trend
is extending to supercross in the person of Team
Suzuki's Travis Pastrana, 16.
Some descry the trend, asserting that personalities should not be granted limelight until they've
earned it in the form of wins and championships.
But in an information age where immediacy has
become old hat, presentin9- the future as news is
the only way to get anyone's attention. Besides,
just as Buddhists' painstaking research leaves them
confident of their pick for their messiah's next
incarnation, sport pundits have a proven set of criteria that assures the accuracy of their prediCtions.
In the case of motocross, those starpower predictors include natural talent (admittedly difficult to
quantify, but you know it when you see it), timing,
personality, desire, discipline, fitness, intelligence,
innovation and charisma. Pastrana has all of these
qualities in spades, and although hjs professional
experience is limited to the U.S. Open and the
Pasadena World Supercross round, it certainly
appears that he will earn all of the attention that he
has been advanced.
A
You had a pretty serious injury not long
go.
l've had most of my injuries racing motocross,
but not any life-threatening ones. In the
freestyle event last year in Lake Havasu, Arizona, I
came up short on a 120-foot jump the first time I
did it - just didn't go fast enough. I ended up dislocating my spinal column from my pelvic area. That
was only the third-known case in history to ever
have that happen. The doctors, after they. saw my
X-rays, were pretty much amazed that I wasn't paralyzed. Three transfusions of blood and two surgeries later, I was back on the bike. I had two
months in a wheelchair, two months in the rehab
JANUARY 12, 2000'
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