The first image that pops onto the screen in the intro video on motocross star Jackson "Jacko" Strong's website is of him walking on crutches with a heavily wrapped bloody right ankle.
Strong, dressed in all black with a baseball cap, crutches to a wall with his long-term goals posted and written on a wrinkled sheet of paper.
The camera zooms in to read what flip maneuvers would win him X Games, including the front flip he landed as a rookie to make history and defeat extreme sport legend Travis Pastrana in 2011.
Nearly a decade later, Strong's career has been marked by as many injury setbacks as record-breaking performances, but he has overcome adversity and continued to set the bar high in his sport dominated by a generation of talented riders from his homeland in Australia.
"The future of the sport is pretty strong," said Strong, who is competing in his third consecutive X Games in Minneapolis. "The sky's the limit with what we can do on those bikes."
The 27-year-old from Lockhart, Australia, came to U.S. Bank Stadium this week to compete in Friday's Moto X Freestyle and Saturday's Moto X Best Trick. The latter event will give him a shot at his second straight gold medal, after winning in Shanghai earlier this year.
Shanghai was also the first time Strong won Best Trick since taking the X Games gold in Minneapolis last summer. In between, Strong had four ankle surgeries this year, which followed the staph infection in his leg in 2018.
"It's been pretty debilitating for my training," Strong said. "It's made it hard to stay fit and stay on top of my game. But I've been doing what I can and spending as much time, ankle permitting, as I can on my motorcycle. I think if the stars align, hopefully, I can put down a good ride and see what happens."
