Ken Roczen says he’s lucky that he didn’t have to have his arm amputated following the spectacular crash in Supercross recently. The former world and American champ has had lots of surgery to repair the arm, and has made the following post on social media.
“You spend months preparing, training and lots of riding for racing and never even tip over really. Literally go without crashing for weeks and everything washes down the drain from just one little bitty mishap. To be honest, I don’t see anything I did wrong. Not like the previous years where I go: “Man that was stupid”
“But riding/racing you have to act quick… very! And in the end you can’t pause the world and think about what you are going to do for a second. You will always go with your instinct and there is nothing wrong with that. That’s part of learning and getting better. But like I said, I would love to look at the crash and say, ohhh that’s what happened..! But I can’t. Not sure if that makes it easier or harder.
“Anyway I felt more gathered and collected and focused than ever as you could tell in my riding (in my eyes) and then something this scary happens so quick. I got VERY lucky that I really just demolished my arm because at that speed and height it could have been very ugly.
“It was still scary coming out of the first surgery and Doc Viola said if it wouldn’t have been done now I could have lost my arm. I started having compartment syndrome. Which means my muscles and everything were so swollen from the impact that they stopped getting blood flow and slowly stop working. And once the muscle is dead there is no bringing it back. Anyway. Tough pill to swollow, but hey. Could have been worse. Felt like telling the story. But it’s good to hear that thing are gonna be fine. Just gotta be patient.”