00:00He miscalculated his jump, and as he launched into the air, he was kicked away from the bike
00:04with no hope of saving himself. When Ken Rockson hit the dirt, it was his left arm which took the
00:10force of the impact. Ken knew immediately he'd broken his left arm, but it was only when he was
00:15rushed to the hospital and they cut the jersey off his body that they discovered how bad it really
00:20was. Both the radius and ulna in his forearm had snapped and punctured through the skin. He'd also
00:26broken and dislocated his wrist, dislocated his elbow, and torn multiple ligaments straight off
00:31the bone. Before the accident, Ken had been making a name for himself as one of the most dominant
00:36riders in Supercross, and after winning the first two races of the season, he was the favourite to
00:40win the third. But now, Ken's entire career was in jeopardy. If they couldn't repair his arm,
00:45his dominance in the sport would almost certainly be over, just as quick as it began. For Ken,
00:50it seemed like the diagnosis couldn't get any worse, but it did. By the time he was flown to Denver
00:55to
00:55see Dr. Viola, the specialist who would be reconstructing his arm, the uncontrollable
01:00swelling had started restricting blood flow to the muscles and nerves. Ken's arm was slowly
01:05rotting away, and the specialist told him it would need to be amputated unless they operated
01:10immediately. Dr. Viola got to work, and the priorities shifted from saving Ken's career to
01:15simply trying to save his limb. But Ken seemed remarkably unfazed and optimistic, telling the specialist
01:21right before going in for surgery, this thing doesn't have to be perfect. Just give me an elbow,
01:26give me a wrist, if I can hold a handlebar, I can win. And with that, Ken went in for
01:30the first of
01:31what would end up being more than 11 different surgeries to repair his arm. And after nearly a
01:36year of treatment and rehabilitation, not only was his arm saved, but Ken shocked the world when he
01:42returned to the stadium. His elbow couldn't fully straighten, his wrist could barely move at all,
01:46and his arm was still numb. But despite all that, there he was, once again, competing against the
01:52best of the best. On his shaky return, it took him a while to warm up, but by the time
01:56he did,
01:57he managed to set the fastest lap time in the race, and he crossed the line in fourth place.
02:01Then, two years after his return in 2020, Ken was once again, finally back on top of the podium.
