Chad Kagy: The BMX Vert phenom
Chad Kagy is a name that is widely known and respected in action sports. The professional BMX rider from America has been making waves in the sport for quite some time now, daring to take on the best and always making sure that he doesn’t let victory evade
him without putting up a tough fight. There are very few rides that can make Kagy to as much as break a sweat in vert competitions, which simply indicates the domination of the discipline by the experienced rider.
Born in Gilroy, California, in 1978, Kagy had started showing affinity for BMX at a very young age. By the time he had turned four, he was already riding a bike with the training wheels off. At the age of eight, he had already taken his first step into competitive
BMX.
At the age of 17, Kagy entered his first professional competition, announcing himself as a promising athlete. He started with his career with dirt jumping in Northern California, but soon dropped that to pursue glory in BMX Park. However, he soon decided
to step into vert competitions as well and ended up becoming an instant hit. It seemed that the discipline was tailor-made for the Gilroy-native rider.
In the early years of his career, he divided his time between BMX Park and vert. However, he shifted his focus from competing in park competitions to solely vert competitions in 2003. In the same year, he went to the Woodward Camp in order to further groom
his skills and load his arsenal with some of the sensational tricks that later led the critics to call him one of the most dominating rider in competitive vert.
During the 2003 Gravity Games, Kagy met his first major BMX accident after an attempted double back-flip ended in a crash, keeping the young rider out of the competitions for nine months. However, he made his comeback in 2004 X Games and put up an outstanding
performance in BMX Vert, though he missed out on the podium after finishing fourth.
The 2004 performance by the Californian rider was only a small glimpse of his true potential. He came back to X Games next year and this time managed to walk away with the silver medal in the BMX Vert contest. The very next year turned out to be even better
as he showed off his vert prowess in both BMX Vert and Vert Best Trick competition, taking home the silver and bronze medal in the two disciplines respectively.
The 2006 X Games turned out to be the year when Kagy sent the entire BMX community in awe by taking on besting fellow BMX legends, Jamie Bestwick and Simon Tabron, in the Freestyle BMX Vert competition to take home the gold. He accomplished the feat by landing
competition’s first-ever flat-spin bar-spin flair, making the historic win even more memorable. Making a solid impact in the inaugural BMX Big Air event, he walk away with the silver medal as well, making the X Games 12 campaign even more unforgettable.
After missing out on X Games due to injury in 2007, he returned to the big stage once again in 2008 to claim the throne in BMX Big Air and a silver medal in BMX Vert. From there on, he kept on making it to the podium in both these disciplines consistently,
making his resume more and more impressive with every passing year.
X Games was not the only stage where Kagy had earned recognition for his exceptional skills. Another major competition where he unleashed his true potential over the last decade to gain respect and join the ranks of elite riders was Dew Tour. After consistently
making it into the Top-5, he finished second overall in both, the 2008 and 2009 Dew Tour season.
X Games and Dew Tour are only a few of the many competitions where Kagy has proved to be a formidable force. Even at the age of 32, he continues to remain in spotlight and is always amongst the strongest contenders for victory at every BMX event. His latest
performance assures us of the fact that he is still in top form and fully prepared to take on the younger generation of riders head on.
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