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Sports

BMX Pioneer Dave Mirra Has Died

Police in Greenville, North Carolina, announced news of the 41-year-old BMX rider's death Thursday.

Dave Mirra in 2004. Photo via Getty

Dave Mirra, the pro BMX biker with 24 X Games medals and a successful video game franchise to his name, has died.

Police in Greenville, North Carolina, responded to a report of an alleged suicide on Thursday and found the 41-year-old BMX superstar "sitting in a truck with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound." Mirra lived in Greenville with his wife, Lauren, and their two daughters, and had been visiting friends on Thursday before he died.

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"We mourn the loss today of a great friend and wonderful human being who touched the lives of so many around the world with his gift," Greenville's mayor, Allen Thomas, said. "[Mirra] called Greenville, North Carolina, home and was as humble a guy talking with kids on a street corner about bikes as he was in his element on the world stage. A young life with so much to offer was taken too soon."

Dave Mirra was only 13 when he became co-sponsored by the Haro Bikes BMX team in 1987, and his sports career accelerated fast. His 1988 appearance in the Dorkin' in York freestyle BMX video series helped spread word of the versatile young star, and over the next few years he received multiple sponsorships and finally went pro for Hoffman Bikes in early 1992.

He was hit by a drunk driver in 1993, leaving him with a fractured skull and shoulder. After months of recovery, Mirra eventually rode straight back into the highest echelon of BMX. At 24, Mirra holds the second-largest number of X Games medals, exceeded only by Bob Burnquist's 26.

Throughout the 2000s, Mirra cemented his place as a pioneer and icon in the BMX world, releasing a signature shoe, a video game franchise, hosting a show for MTV, and even launching his own BMX company, Mirraco. He retired from the sport in 2011 but continued to compete in triathlons and as a rallycar racer, finishing the 2013 Global Rallycross Championship series in fourth place.

His potential suicide rocked the sports community Thursday evening, from ESPN and the X Games to a stunned local North Carolina sports reporter who proclaimed Mirra "simply the best of the best."

"Goodbye Dave Mirra," his longtime friend Tony Hawk wrote on Twitter. "A true pioneer, icon, and legend. Thank you for the memories… We are heartbroken."