Something changed last week.
Emil Johansson was a hair away from disaster. And then Adolf Silva went for it…
In case the above embed code from Adolf Silva and Road2Recovery’s Instagram post doesn’t work, the post contains some not hugely surprising news; Silva has no sensation from the chest down.
In the past I have not been one of the hand-wringers as regards Red Bull Rampage. My arguments were kind of along the lines that these riders would be doing daft, dangerous stuff even without Rampage.
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But during the men’s event last weekend something changed. I think, like a lot of televised infamy, it was partly due to the instantly-iconic actual camera angle/footage of the horror crash and the instant, total silence that descended on the desert.
And let’s not forget the whole sketchy, panicky, desperation of Silva’s run immediately before the crash. He’d clearly already made up his mind to attempt the double backflip before he set-off from the start platform. This was Rampage; you gotta do something ‘special’ to claim the top spot.
And then, here’s the thing that did it for me, the announcers finally piped up with some hushed words, the event was put ‘on hold’ and they threw to some commercials. Commercials for Red Bull events, shows and stunts. All of which shared the common promotional vibe of risk and/or likelihood of something going wrong.
This doesn’t feel the same as Evel Knievel. The Knievel was the principal risk-taker. He was also the principal benefactor. Rampage didn’t feel like that this year. This year felt like Ancient Rome and the Colosseum. With Emperor Taurine sat on high calling for the next competitor to head into the gladiatorial pit.
Let’s be honest, it doesn’t even feel like Rampage and it hasn’t for a number of years now. As soon as the sandbags arrived, it was no longer true to the spirit of Rampage. It became an event that wasn’t even primarily aimed at mountain bikers anymore. It was now just another viral clip that can also be built into a sizzle reel for Red Bull.
It’s over for me with Red Bull Rampage. I certainly haven’t felt like running the usual post-event result stories and highlight vids on singletrackworld.com this week.
Surely, it’s now over for Rampage. Certainly in its current twisted form at least.
All of us here at Singletrack Magazine hope Adolf Silva’s condition improves. Good luck Adolf.
Road2Recovery Adolf Silva Fundraiser
“Adolf faces an intense and expensive road: daily therapy, adaptive equipment, home adjustments, and ongoing medical support. All funds raised will go toward Adolf’s ongoing medical care, rehabilitation, and transport to Barcelona, as well as adaptive home and vehicle modifications and specialized mobility equipment essential for his long-term independence and quality of life. Your help makes a direct difference in his recovery and stability — giving him every chance to rebuild his life.“
Indeed.
I’d say it goes “healing vibes" (because that’s sunny and positive given the situation), “healing vibes"……….."It’s been too long"………aaaaand off the radar & contact list.
It’s much easier to stay in denial if that’s your approach to others that have fallen off the perch.
But this is skirting around the main issue – this is understanding the mindset of Agent Pappas’ “young, dumb and full of cum". We’ve all been there, though at a much diluted level. Then we (most of us) grew up. It’s the role of big business in this that tips it from being the rite of passage of the skilful risk taker to TiRed’s “Commercial coercive control" above.
Probably not. The only reason to get an insurer to administer the self insured plan for you is you get to take advantage of their negotiated prices with hospitals, clinical case management, shifting the costs of administration from Redbull to the insurer etc. The number of claims they’re likely to have would be minimal, but the costs would be astronomical. I imagine Silva’s costs have already exceeded $1 million
@convert may I ask what line of work you are in? That is a very interesting observation. Not something that’s ever crossed my mind, but it seems logical that people who are drawn towards the suffering for the long haul would cope better in these situations than people with the extreme sports kind of mindset. I understand that no one is forcing anyone to participate, though you do need an invitation to enter, it’s insane to me that red bull, in this case, are allowed to promote and benefit from such a dangerous event without providing some form of cover for uninsured participants.
as for insurance, I can’t imagine that rampage competitors could afford the premiums. There is a concept of self insurance where a company can demonstrate that it has the resources to cover the costs of accidents. This waives any legal need for insurance. I’m pretty sure red bull could reach the threshold for self insurance, so I’m pretty sure they could underwrite the risk of rampage themselves. Like wise Coca-Cola, the people behind monster could afford to cover their sponsored riders.
What is obvious to me is that the potential cost of an accident at rampage is greater than the return on investment in the sponsorship, as such insurance isn’t provided.
I wish Adolf well for the future. I had a bad accident a couple of years ago. I broke a lot of bones. Had I landed on my head, things would have been very different for everyone in my life.
Looks like the self insurance thing has already come up!
So, first questions
1. Who’s said Redbull haven’t sorted insurance or medical stuff?
2. Who says Silva doesn’t have any himself?
it seems everyone is going off here without actually knowing anything at all about the answers
Interesting to hear from someone in the industry.
That’s angering, depressing, and not-surprising in equal measures 🙁
I decided not to carry on watching Rampage a few years ago as I was (sadly) anticipating someone getting seriously hurt or killed. It excited me 10+ years ago. Now it just depresses me.
Weeksy; they might have done, and in that case a statement like this wouldn’t be too tricky to issue:
“We are so upset at the injuries that Adolf suffered at the Rampage. Please be assured that we are working with all of his sponsors to ensure that his care, immediate and into the future, is well covered to allow him the space and time to concentrate on his his recovery without having to worry about his finances.”
But they haven’t…
Talking of naivety, this article from 2014 about Rampage is shocking. Using a standard travel policy to compete…. I wonder how much has changed, but I suspect not enough. Who is advising a teenage rookie on how to pick a policy.
https://www.pinkbike.com/news/risk-vs-reward-contest-insurance-2014.html
Other sports try to minimise risk, whereas Rampage seems to increase risk year on year.
Redbull haven’t said anything as far as I can see this far, but this week insta had redbull highlight clips of all the biggest crashes from Rampage (but not the medevac ones). They may have taken those down now. Redbull clearly don’t care, and these guys and gals are just fodder for the social media machine. I have enjoyed lots of their stuff, but I will be unrolling them after this.
I appreciate you can’t necessarily legislate out the youthful stupidity, but Redbull have a responsibility surely to help these guys do this in a safer environment, and survive better.
The crowd funding suggests that if he had insurance it wasn’t enough to cover the risk
He’s gonna need more than vibes, RedBull owe him for the rest of his life.
All I can hope/wish for is his cord isn’t severed and it’s merely compressed which may be recoverable from through time and neurological physio, as I mentioned in other rampage thread I was someone at age 19 who was completely paralysed and told from the upper chest down for a couple of months before a neurosurgeon (Tom Russell Edinburgh) gathered together a team of visiting U.S. surgeons and combined 30+hrs of reconstructive spinal surgery, pulling shards of bone from spinal cord, building metal framework round spine and fusing vertebrae along with 4months of daily rehab sorta fixed me apart from never having bowel/bladder control which meant I have a license to piss & shit anywhere like a horse.
Lying in hospital on an inflatable bed that moved side to side/up/down every 30mins to avoid bed sores, suffering absolutely * hellish phantom nerve pain in lower limbs due to cord damage, having a nurse physically removing lumps of shit from my arse (bowel peristalsis didn’t work), thoughts that go through your head 24hrs day…..
The minute I saw the crash I knew it was gonna be bad so stopped watching, I hope it is recoverable as I know from personal experience what he’s going through
So according to the link posted by susepic some riders have pro insurance, that has paid out
Whilst I’m in firm agreement that red bull should pickup the tab for this, it seems some people are suggesting that the riders are somehow coerced into this by the corporations.
Is this really the case? What pressure do they face that forces them to do this stuff, perhaps they feel it’s the best thing to do for their career but I’m not sure I see the benefits. Are the sponsors really piling on the pressure? I’m not saying they are not responsible just interested to know what happens.
surely there must be a part of them that WANTS to do it?
They could say no right.
i remember seeing an interview with Gee where he said I didn’t do it for points or prizes but just the thrill of the experience.
I’d say encouraged rather than coerced. Same effect though.
So I wonder, if there was some kind of stipulation/commitment from Redbull that they would/must cover in full the medical bills and ongoing care costs for any Redbull athletes or participants injured in a Redbull event, how that might change the event format………
See above. It’s not likely that they can afford to do that.
If a multibillion ££ corp can’t afford the medical bills, then should they be expecting the kids to afford it instead
“ any Redbull athletes"“Redbull" doing the heavy lifting there… Silva is Monster, no?Having said that, it would be pocket change to Red Bull anyway I guess.
I struggle with all this TBH – I genuinely enjoy the skill and spectacle on show at Rampage (sometimes despite myself), and do believe that the riders understand the risk (and take it for whatever reason – personal, reputational, financial, whatever…). But do also feel that Red Bull have a big ethical responsibility to step in when things go south… And make it clear that they are doing so.
Of course if they do that, they are then potentially opening themselves to accusations of virtue signalling.
For me, carry on with the event but riders’ lines need to be vetted and their ‘routines’ committed to with anything deemed too risky (maybe by peers?) being vetoed even if safety netting, etc. is added (no downhill skiers or audiences moan about the netting being in place AFAIK).
Do you have any idea how much lifetime care for someone would be?
It’s certainly not pocket change, even for a relatively well known brand like Red Bull.
Likely to be in the 10s of millions.
So the entirety of the lifetime of treatment should fall on the injured rider?, whilst redbull can continue to profit from the exposure and broadcast?.
I have a very good idea what lifetime care costs, it is chump change for a company such as red bull
I’m really not sure where you got the idea that that was what I was arguing?