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Celebrated BMX rider Dave Mirra passes away at 41

The BMX world lost part of its pantheon this week, when Dave Mirra was found dead in Greenville, North Carolina on Thursday, Feb. 4. Mirra was 41 years old.

The BMX world lost part of its pantheon this week, when Dave Mirra was found dead in Greenville, North Carolina, where he lived with his wife and children, on Thursday, Feb. 4.

Mirra was 41 years old.

At the time of his death, Mirra had been visiting with friends, police said. The trailblazing BMX rider-turned-triathlete was discovered with a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the result of an apparent suicide. An accomplished athlete in both sports, Mirra was an “inspiration,” Triathlon Magazine said, to athletes in the cycling and triathlon worlds.

Before embarking on his triathlon career, Mirra, of course, was famous on a global scale for holding a record number of X Games medals as a world-class BMXer—among many other accomplishments. Between 1995 and 2008, Mirra won a medal each year, including 14 gold medal victories. In spectacular fashion, a series of gravity-defying performances built global prestige for the Syracuse, New York-born BMX rider, accomplishments that included pulling off the first double backflip in 2000 and a 360-degree, no-handed backflip in 2009.

His record-setting career medal streak, 24 in all, was only broken in 2013. That prestige, ultimately, made Mirra a legend synonymous with BMX, even earning him namesake status for a couple of video games, Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 1 and 2.

Allen Thomas, Greenville’s mayor, spoke for many in the BMX and triathlon communities mourning the 41-yar-old athlete’s loss.

“We mourn the loss today of a great friend and wonderful human being,” he said in a statement published on social media, “who touched the lives of so many around the world with his gift. He 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,” Thomas said.