A little broken wrist ain't gonna keep her from defending her title
July 3, 2009, 11:47 AM
By: B.J. Smith
Markus Paulsen/ESPN Images
Who knew Puerto Rico had such fast women? Tarah Gieger did. XG '08.
Tarah Gieger, the 2008 XG Women's Moto X Racing gold medalist, is not having the year she wanted. She spent her spring racing in Europe to train for the AMA Women's Motocross Championship, but she came away with a broken right wrist instead of improved fitness. The injury happened at a May 9 race in Portugal and was bad enough to require setting and wires. Still, the Puerto Rican-born star maintains that she'll definitely be back for X Games '09.
"I was running sixth and took an inside line coming down one of the hills and passed about three girls in the process," Gieger said, recounting the crash. "'Good line,' I thought to myself. Unfortunately, when I was heading up the straightaway after taking that line I clipped a big fence post with my bars and got slammed to the ground. Before I could figure out what was going on I was running off the track with a visibly snapped wrist."
After getting a cast, Gieger headed to the Isle of Man to watch the famous TT race and stay with boyfriend David Knight, an off-road motorcycle icon and multi World Enduro and GNCC champion. The pair met in September 2008 while taping a segment of the Nitro Circus "Thrillbillies" DVD with Travis Pastrana.
Her cast and wires were removed on June 9. Her original goal was to return to racing at the fifth round of the AMA/WMA Motocross Championships in Lakewood, Colo., on June 27, but she was unable to compete there because she still needs more strength in the wrist.
When asked how it felt to win X Games 2008, which was Gieger's last win, she said, "The pressure's off now. To win the first race that featured women in Supercross racing was awesome. I was stoked about the whole thing but a little scared, too, since I had never been on a Supercross track until about three weeks before the race."
Gieger said her approach in 2008 seemed to work fine and she doesn't anticipate changing her program. Her biggest difficulty was the whoops section and that's where she'll be spending her practice laps when she's healthy.
Comments that include profanity, or personal attacks, or antisocial behavior such as "spamming" or "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will be removed from the site. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our terms of use. You are fully responsible for the content that you post.
Contributors
Vince Castellanos
The X/Winter X Research manager, Vince has covered action sports for ESPN since 1998. That makes him, like, old and stuff.
Kevin McAvoy
Ohio born and bred, Kevin now resides on the left coast and has written a word or two about BMX since discovering it almost 25 years ago. He joined ESPN in 2007 after editing stints with multiple action-sports mags.
Jen Horsey
Jen used to be just a journalist. Then she found Rally Car Racing. Now she's a full-time rally fanatic whose adventures in action sports have made her the only co-driver to have landed a rally car front flip in X Games competition.
Nicole Dreon
An X Games lifer who began working for ESPN in 1999, Nicole has skied the source of the Nile. Top that.
Michelle Hurni
Hanging around X Games since competing (slowly) in Speed Climbing, Michelle has covered several X/Winter X sports.
B.J. Smith
Former racer-turned-television producer/journalist, B.J. battled Ricky Carmichael for 9th place in a moto at Loretta Lynn's in 1989. Every year after that he got lapped by the GOAT. Smith has been covering X Games since 2004.
Alisa Mokler
Alisa competed twice in Winter X SuperPipe before going from shredding momma to full-time mama. She's worked for ESPN since 2007.
