This is a guest post by Michelle Manzione. Michelle is a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of Florida studying mass communications. She’s also a writer, anchor and producer.
He walked into Gainesville’s Panera Bread like he owned the place: smooth, calm and collected.
His style was simple: T-shirt, shorts, Vans and a backwards cap, with his Volcom backpack in tow. Standing at 5 feet 10 inches and weighing around 150 pounds, Tom Parsons isn’t exactly big but his status sure is.
He has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram, hundreds of Facebook friends and dozens of magazine and internet articles written about him. He’s well-known.
Parsons, 32, has such status because he is one of the few individuals who took home a gold medal in the 2014 X-Games this June.
“The X-Games are like the extreme athlete’s version of the Olympics,” he said, proudly. “You specialize and compete in your event. My event is ‘best whip.’”
“Best whip” is an event reserved for those riders who can “whip it.” A whip is a trick that requires the rider to make the bike parallel to the ground while in the air. Some riders, like Parsons, are able to take this trick a step further and bring the bike over themselves, turning themselves upside down, without actually flipping.
It’s a difficult move that requires strength and great core muscles. The riders must take the bike off the ground high into the air, whip it and bring it back down to the ground without injuring themselves. Though Parsons tells me he’s afraid of heights, he loves being in the air.
“Being upside down, high in the air, is a calming effect for me. Even though I’m afraid of heights, I don’t really think about anything,” he said longingly. “I’m kind of… free.”
Parsons walked up to the counter to get his lunch. Parsons returned with a Fiji Apple chicken salad, creamy macaroni and cheese and a soda. His macaroni and cheese looked so delicious, I wanted to reach across the table and grab some.
This summer, while taking out the trash, I met Parsons, my neighbor. Once we began talking, he told me that he was a motocross rider and an X-Game contender. I was excited to learn more.
Over the years, the term motocross has evolved. First it was defined as cross-country racing on a motorcycle. Now, motocross is most commonly known as an extreme sport that involves dirt bikes, no-limit-having individuals and gut-wrenching tricks that leave you breathless.
Parsons, originally from California, fell in love with this outrageous sport when he moved to Florida. At the young age of 11, he entered his first motocross competition. Though he performed poorly, he didn’t give up. Instead, the entire family fell victim to this extreme sport and spent all of their time traveling the state, watching and competing.
“Every weekend, my family and I traveled for motocross,” Parsons said.
Sometimes they even traveled on weekdays.
Five years into competing with motocross, Parsons was a serious driver. At 20 years old, he turned pro. His whole life revolved around motocross. He graduated from high school with a 3.6 grade point average, but he never attended college. He just didn’t have the time. He was too busy practicing his craft.
“I spend four to five hours a day practicing. When I’m not injured, that is,” he said, smiling.
Via: YouTube
With extreme sports come extreme consequences, and Parsons is no stranger to that.
“If I were to guess, I’ve probably broken at least 18 bones and blacked out five or six times,” he said, nonchalantly. “I’ve also had some shoulders pop out, too.”
This year, alone, he has undergone two major surgeries; for his tibia, which was broken in January, and his abdominal fascia, which gave out in August.
Parsons’ abdominal fascia, the band that holds your stomach together and gives you posture, was compromised while riding his bike. The surgery left a 5-inch long incision on Parsons’ lower stomach and caused him great pain during recovery. Moving, coughing, sneezing and laughing were inevitable but extremely painful when they happened, he said.
Prior to undergoing fascia surgery, Parsons snapped the tibia bone in his leg, while riding motocross, and had immediate surgery in January. The recovery time for his tibia was said to be four to six months, right around the time of the X-Games.
Because the X-Games were in June, Parsons feared he would not be able to perform in it. About a month into his recovery, the first round of X-Games invitations began circulating. For Parsons’ event, “Best Whip,” only six riders would be invited. Each year he hoped to be one of the six, but fell just short. He was certain the same would happen this year because of his tibia injury, but surprisingly enough, he received an invitation about three weeks after the first invites went out. He was thrilled. To him, the X-Games is the biggest event, and he would not miss it, regardless of the status of his leg.
Via: X Games
“If I were to compare motocross to an Olympic event, it would be similar to track and field,” he told me. “You have multiple events in track and field, just as you do in the motocross X-Games,” Parsons informed me.”
Thousands of hopefuls train each and every year, but only a few have the opportunity to be contenders.
Before turning pro, Parsons could participate only in motocross, which takes place on a track outside, in the heat, and doesn’t offer much to its spectators. After turning pro, however, he was able to perform in supercross competitions. According to Parsons, supercross is similar to motocross but is performed on a track inside an arena. Supercross is what Parsons competed in for the X-Games, a sport he said he prefers to motocross.
“It’s much better for spectators as they can sit on a seat and see the track from pretty much anywhere,” he says.
In addition to riding in supercross competitions, Parsons is now sponsored. He explained that different companies sponsor different things; meaning, one organization will sponsor his gear while another will sponsor his leg brace. He credits his largest sponsorship to Alias, those that sponsor all of his gear.
Via: MX Large
Another great thing about being pro is being able to travel all around the world for little to no cost at all. So far, Parsons has been to 44 of the 50 U.S. states, Canada, Germany, Japan, Nicaragua and Guatemala, just to name a few places. During his trip to Germany, Parsons decided to extend his stay in Europe and traveled to Italy, Switzerland and Austria.
Most of Parsons’ motocross or supercross competitions take place in the U.S. or Canada. His most recent competition took place Oct. 18th in Las Vegas although he was still recovering from the fascia surgery.
The recovery time cut close to the competition date, but he wasn’t worried. Unfortunately he hasn’t had the ability to practice much, which is similar to the situation he endured with the X-Games.
After having his tibia surgery, Parsons had only two practice runs before he performed at the X-Games, ultimately taking home the gold.
When asked if he thinks motocross is a dangerous sport, Parsons doles out a kind of humorous response.
“Of course it’s a dangerous sport,” he said. “It’s probably [one of] the most dangerous sports you could do. You just have to be smart about it and know your limits.”
