Professional Action Sport Athletes’ Experiences with and Attitudes Toward Concussion: A Phenomenological Study

Dave Mirra was a legend. He was one of a handful of freestyle BMX competitors who revolutionized the sport. For years, Mirra was not only the face of BMX, but also of the entire ESPN X Games franchise (Higgins, 2016). His strength and determination were renown and Mirra, himself, was beloved by fellow athletes, sponsors, the media, and fans (Higgins, 2016). Over the course of his 20-plus year career, Mirra won 24 X Games medals. Being first in BMX circles was something that came naturally for Mirra. He was the first to beat legend Mat Hoffman in competition; He was the first to land a double back flip; He was first to be featured on the cover of national sports magazines; He was the first to sign a national sponsorship (Reebok); He was the first to have his own video game; He was the first to land a national television sports hosting gig (Higgins, 2016). He was also the first action sports athlete to be positively--and posthumously--diagnosed with CTE (Roenigk, 2016). In 2016 and at the age of 41, Mirra was planning a comeback to the sport. But one early February day, that all changed. The man who seemingly had everything, a successful sports legacy, a lucrative television career, a loving wife and two young daughters, died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound (Higgins, 2016; Roenigk, 2016). In May of 2016, an autopsy confirmed that Mirra had suffered from chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE. CTE is a progressive, neurodegenerative disease caused by an excessive buildup of tau proteins in the brain (Ma et al., 2013; McKee et al., 2009). Neuropathologists agree CTE to be caused by repetitive head trauma. Victims of CTE are reported to live with significant depression, mood swings, and other personality disorders. Many are drug depending, and all are at increased risk of suicidal ideation or completion (Ma et al., 2013; McKee et al., 2009). Until Mirra's case was confirmed, CTE in athletes was most commonly connected to the sport of football, where blunt force trauma to the head is undeniable (Ma et al., 2013; McKee et al., 2009; Roenigk, 2016). Action sports, sometimes referred to as extreme sports, experienced a meteoric rise begin in the summer of 1995, when national sports network ESPN held its first X Games event. Five hundred thousand fans, most of them teenagers and twenty-somethings, witnessed athletes deliver breathtaking stunts on skateboards, rollerblades, and mountain bikes (Pickert, 2009). Other activities at the event, including bungee jumping, sky surfing, and street luging, also found their way into the mainstream sports dialect (Pickert, 2009). Today, ESPN (2015) continues to advertise the X Games as, "the ultimate action sports event, attracting adrenalin-crazed athletes from across the globe who continuously push the boundaries and keep coming back to defy gravity" (para. 1). Since 1995, the Games have evolved to include more than 55 different events in both summer and winter venues. In action sports, the word freestyle appears to explain the athletes' attitudes as much as the unrestricted creativity of the stunts (Branch, 2013). The sports' non-conformist culture--one in which male competitors are often referred to as dudes--has successfully penetrated the Olympic sports movement, too (Branch, 2013; Whiteside, 2014). In the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, these so-called action sports accounted for 12 of the 28 total medals won by the United States (Whiteside, 2014). Vert (vertical) ramps for both BMX bicycles and skateboards are even being considered for the Summer Olympic program for the 2020 Games (McGrath, 2014). Action sports athletes have "an insatiable appetite for the extreme" (ESPN, 2015, para. 1). Nowhere is that more evident than in freestyle BMX and motocross events where riders perform incredible acrobatic stunts from impressive heights. In Big Air events, competitors are judged on height, creativity, and risk. In recent years, ramp sizes have increased and stunts have evolved from "impressive tricks to outright daredevilry" (McGrath, 2014, para. …