Something changed last week.
Emil Johansson was a hair away from disaster. And then Adolf Silva went for it…
In case the above embed code from Adolf Silva and Road2Recovery’s Instagram post doesn’t work, the post contains some not hugely surprising news; Silva has no sensation from the chest down.
In the past I have not been one of the hand-wringers as regards Red Bull Rampage. My arguments were kind of along the lines that these riders would be doing daft, dangerous stuff even without Rampage.
But during the men’s event last weekend something changed. I think, like a lot of televised infamy, it was partly due to the instantly-iconic actual camera angle/footage of the horror crash and the instant, total silence that descended on the desert.
And let’s not forget the whole sketchy, panicky, desperation of Silva’s run immediately before the crash. He’d clearly already made up his mind to attempt the double backflip before he set-off from the start platform. This was Rampage; you gotta do something ‘special’ to claim the top spot.
And then, here’s the thing that did it for me, the announcers finally piped up with some hushed words, the event was put ‘on hold’ and they threw to some commercials. Commercials for Red Bull events, shows and stunts. All of which shared the common promotional vibe of risk and/or likelihood of something going wrong.
This doesn’t feel the same as Evel Knievel. The Knievel was the principal risk-taker. He was also the principal benefactor. Rampage didn’t feel like that this year. This year felt like Ancient Rome and the Colosseum. With Emperor Taurine sat on high calling for the next competitor to head into the gladiatorial pit.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t even feel like Rampage and it hasn’t for a number of years now. As soon as the sandbags arrived, it was no longer true to the spirit of Rampage. It became an event that wasn’t even primarily aimed at mountain bikers anymore. It was now just another viral clip that can also be built into a sizzle reel for Red Bull.
It’s over for me with Red Bull Rampage. I certainly haven’t felt like running the usual post-event result stories and highlight vids on singletrackworld.com this week.
Surely, it’s now over for Rampage. Certainly in its current twisted form at least.
All of us here at Singletrack Magazine hope Adolf Silva’s condition improves. Good luck Adolf.
Road2Recovery Adolf Silva Fundraiser
“Adolf faces an intense and expensive road: daily therapy, adaptive equipment, home adjustments, and ongoing medical support. All funds raised will go toward Adolf’s ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and transport to Barcelona, as well as adaptive home and vehicle modifications and specialized mobility equipment essential for his long-term independence and quality of life. Your help makes a direct difference in his recovery and stability — giving him every chance to rebuild his life.“
I am also bothered by the problems that Red Bull and Monster etc are doing selling sugar and cafine to young people. I really dont like the sports washing of these products.
As someone who lives in Utah and who’s attended rampage events, including womens event this year, ridden the area, and has close connections to athletes in the sport, including some of this year’s riders, I feel reasonably well informed to say that the riders are doing this for themselves and their chosen sport. I struggle to see much coercion or manipulation of riders by red bull at the events.
That being said, I do agree that the judging creates a lot of confusion and focus on amplitude, and I’d be very surprised it wasn’t reviewed ahead of future events to try to achieve a safer outcome.
p.s. Most of the STW readership is likely not going to have even seen the deserts riding in Utah, let alone tried freeride, so I completely understand that it may not make a lot of sense, and even seem irrational to even consider hucking off a dirt cliff, but if you were to head down to Virgin UT today I guarantee you you’d find people of all ages riding the old rampage lines, building new lines, encouraging each other to become better riders and celebrating when features get ticked off. The scale of the features being ridden by my 11yo are beyond what I rode in 30 years of riding all over the UK, let alone what the teenagers ride.
If anyone wants a guided trip to Utah riding just hit me up, always happy to ride!
I’d love this. Never going to happen though.
I’d love to spend a few days riding the lower slopes and some of the smaller features. Just to see what I could build up to. No flips obviously.
Pretty sure you don’t get to choose. Someone from Red Bull will force you at gun point to sign a disclaimer and then put you in a trebuchet and shoot you off a cliff… and then charge your family to ship you home. Or something.
Adding the element of competition, with rewards for the (subjective) best, is the coercion. Whilst they don’t have a gun to their heads, it’s not open to everyone so those that are invited have a level of expectation on them, plus the fact they have to get the runs done, there and then, with limited practice.
Not really comparable in scale, but (contrary to popular belief) I’ve done races and there’s been jumps outside my comfort zone, where not hitting them costs significant time on a short course so, because competition, I took a brave pill and hit that line as it was the last chance of the day to set a time. Broke 6 ribs and a collarbone. Had I just been out riding on the same trail, I likely as not wouldn’t have hit it.
At the risk of repeating my earlier comment, I felt that the riding standard this year was the highest ever – and also that the risk management from the athletes was more noticeable at the same time.
With the primary exception of Adolf, who seemed determined to roll the dice.
Godziek’s crash was less serious because he was close to sticking it and Emil’s wasn’t fully visible but seemed a bit random.
I don’t want to see the event shut down but I do hope RB are seriously pondering what they could do in terms of safety or medical coverage to improve things – and not just sticking their heads in the sand like they do about the judging every year.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/does-red-bull-rampage-need-to-change-an-interview-with-tarek-rasouli.html
“Well, every athlete has to have their own insurance. That’s usually the case. It’s not possible that the event insures you because if it went to a trial there would be a conflict of interest in.So yeah, you have to have your own insurance and, and you’re sort of your own insurance and to a certain degree as well. Just if you know your limits, like the more you know your limits and you have that experience, it’s experience, awareness, and just your own feeling for where is my personal limit, but it’s so hard, of course.
I think a lot of people got the impression that, you know, Red Bull or Monster or any of his sponsors weren’t helping him due to the Road to Recovery campaign. A lot of times they’re just in order to help the athlete with the other expenses that come with an injury like this. I don’t want to speak. I don’t know his insurance situation, but even if he had insurance that covered his hospital stay and stuff, once he’s out of the hospital, he’ll need his house to have, you know, adaptive things put in place. He’s not going to be working for a while. There’s different things.The money that’s raised for an athlete that’s injured isn’t just to replace their health insurance, it’s to help their quality of life. Once they’re on that road to recovery, to use the name of the organization, that’s kind of why that organization started in the beginning. I think it got to start in the, the moto world, but people have these big injuries and the funding helps them continue to be able to do what they want to do.There’s a lot of kind of finger pointing saying all sponsors are leaving the athletes out to dry, but that’s not the case. As far as I can tell, there’s a lot of work behind the scenes to ensure that Adolf has all the support from his current sponsors. It’s easy to just say, “Look at this. He didn’t even have insurance. Now we have to raise money for him,” but that’s that’s not what happened. That money is to help him recover, and we all want to see him recover to fullest extent"
" I’m positive that he will get supported also by his personal sponsor, Monster, as well as Red Bull in some way or another. I know that from a personal experience as well. I mean, I Red Bull supported me a long time throughout my recovery, and yeah, pretty much through my life almost, I can say"
https://www.reddit.com/r/MTB/comments/1okmwgq/adolf_silva_recovery_update/
Many sports are dangerous and I take the point abovr from Utah that people would do this anyhow. People base jump anyhow but the Redbull sponsoring makes the most extreme form very visible and is presented as cool because it sells shit. We’re talking about this because it’s news because Redbull. I’ve been an adventure sports enthusiast all my life so I had a quick think about serious injuries and deaths among people close to me. In no particlar order:
MTB: Broken bones myself included, no deaths or anthing life changing.
Road cycling: limiting to fellow club members, 2 deaths, a crash and a heart attack, many broken bones.
Rallying. One death on an event I was driving in.
Autotesting: Zilch
Climbing: one death of a fellow club member I’d shared a rope with.
Ski mountaineering: four deaths of club members, all in avalanches
Wind surfing: zilch
Triathlon: One club membre had a life changing bike crash
So I agree that people willingly and enthusiatically do dangerous stuff because they enjoy it and somtimes pay the price. Redbull with its sonsorship, media coverage and imposed lines puts riders in a position where they feel obliged to attempt somthing that if no-one but their mates were around they’d dismiss with “**** that, you first".
I hope that’s true but would like to see some form of press release from RB and his sponsors confirming it rather than an informed guess from an ex RB athlete
Hmmm, I read back through this thread last night and had a think.
The most striking thing to me is how many people seem keener to talk more about insurance and “financialising” serious injuries… That all sort of misses the point (IMO).
RB events aren’t really a core part of any given sport, they’re a bolt-on, extreme spectacle typically. Intended to be entertaining, and yes obviously a promotional tool. We have other bodies that organise all the other forms of competition within MTB, it’s worth recognising that RedBull events are mostly for the benefit of RedBull, and they get precisely what they want out of them while the unwashed masses get some entertainment.
Going back to the original article, the entertainment value is what gets damaged by events like Adolf Silva’s injury, not just the accident but the glossing over of it afterwards.
I suppose it comes down to the concept of “Risk as entertainment” and that’s inherent in most forms of entertainment, the stakes can be as low as just embarrassing yourself with Karaoke, or as high as dying in a cage fight and all points in between.
RB events have to strike a balance, zero risk and the entertainment value is gone, too much risk and you’re just watching young people throwing away their health to amuse some (cruel?) strangers.
Despite the “elf ‘n’ safety gawn maaad!” posts, nobody actually seems to be calling for Rampage to be “banned” but I do think people are right to question whether or not it’s still an entertaining spectacle in its current form, and if that is worth the physical well being of young people like Adolf Silva.
I like seeing people clear challenging moves and difficult lines, but I don’t want to see someone double flipping their mobility away to sell fizzy piss. And I certainly don’t like seeing the Austrian piss purveyors apparently editing their coverage to skirt the reality of what happens if things do go wrong.
In amongst all the stoke was there anyone there in Utah to remind participants that some risks just aren’t worth taking, especially when all you’re really doing is promoting a can of fizzy piss to impressionable children?
It’s not about money, no sum that RedBull or anyone else could conjure up will undo Adolf Silva’s injuries, the risks were never worth the rewards (IMO) I suppose that’s the nub of it. If enough people think it’s an acceptable price for the spectacle of Rampage then I suppose it doesn’t need to change…
@cookeaa nails it right there imo.
It was great to see that Adolf is at least coherent and has regained upper-body mobility, although I was quite disappointed/shocked to see how quickly he has decided to televise his recovery. Maybe he needs the money… or is it a deep-seated need to entertain or get recognition and respect? It’s surely too early to decide he will “inspire" others; even if his personal drive is inspirational, his ongoing physical needs (toileting, washing, etc) are going to take some getting used to.
I hope the young fella is getting the real support that he needs to adjust to his situation (physical and mental) rather than masking it with bravado. I tried masking my life-changing situation with bravado and bollocks… it helped me for a while but I only became truly happy again after time to adjust and some excellent counselling.