INTERVIEW
AMA SUPERCROSS AND 450 MOTOCROSS CHAMPION RYAN DUNGEY
P100
them like he has.
"I've been blessed with what
I do but I want to be able to be
a blessing to somebody else
and give back," Dungey said.
"It might only be a little bit in
the scheme of things as far as
dollars or my time, but with all
of us together we can make
a pretty good dent. It's hard.
It's very hard to see that stuff.
I watched it first-hand with my
grandmother, who was older, to
fight cancer and die right in front
of me. These little kids haven't
even gotten to live their lives.
That's what I came to realize:
what an amazing position I've
been put in. Because of racing,
I can make an impact. I can help
somebody. I can be a good role
model to the kids coming up.
I can be a good sport ambas-
sador. These are things I want
to do for more than just selfish
reasons [as it was when he was
young]. It's humbling and kind of
sad some of the things that we
put as priorities in our life."
Dungey is a Christian man,
and he has come to embrace
what that really means.
"I think at the end of our life
we're all going to be asked,
What did you do with it?" Dungey
said. "God's going to ask, What
did you do with what I gave you?
I want to make sure that I made
an impact and did everything
I could with every opportunity
and every position I was put in to
benefit His will and not mine."
And ultimately, that's the
difference between teenaged
Ryan Dungey and today's Ryan
Dungey: What he thought he
wanted as his legacy back then
isn't even really a thought today.
"In all honestly, in the begin-
ning I thought I wanted to be
remembered for what I did on
the track," Dungey said. "But
within the last five years, it would
be the opposite. If I live 80 years
and the first 25, 30 years I spent
racing dirt bikes, I still have 50
years to go. After 50 years, no-
body's going to remember what
I did on the track, so I'd rather
be remembered for what I did
off it. We're not going to take our
trophies with us." CN
