Freestyle motocross figure Jayden “Jayo” Archer, the first individual to execute a triple backflip in competition, passed away while practicing the feat in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia, according to ESPN, which also noted that the man was just 27 years old.
Travis Pastrana described Archer as a “great human.”
“This really hit home,” Pastrana noted, according to ESPN. “Jayo grew up in a time when action sports was at its biggest, and he always wanted to do the big stuff like the double and the triple, even though there weren’t a lot of places to showcase those bigger tricks. He’d get up every morning at 4 a.m. and go to the gym before work so he could ride his dirt bike. When he came to Maryland to train, he stayed at my house and was an incredible role model to my kids. He was a great human first, a hard worker second and a bad motherf***er third.”
Archer had included the phrase “Work Hard Dream Big” on his Instagram profile.
“No one had a bigger heart or more determination than Jayo,” senior vice president and GM of Nitro Circus Ricky Melnik told the outlet. “We called him the Incredible Hulk. He was a beast on the bike and a gentle giant off it. Watching him go through the process of learning and landing the triple flip in competition was so inspiring. He wanted to take FMX to the next level and go further than anyone had gone before.”
Jayo Archer | First Ever FMX Triple Backflip in Competitionwww.youtube.com
Like Blaze News? Bypass the censors, sign up for our newsletters, and get stories like this direct to your inbox. Sign up here!
