By Eugene Han reporting from Shanghai

In the BMX Vert Finals, Chad Kagy once again came out head and shoulders above the rest of the field with a scintillating performance that had the crowd on their feet. The 30-year-old American has just returned to competitive action after recovering from a shattered collarbone.

Here, Chad Kagy talks to espnstar.com’s Eugene Han after his latest win at X Games Asia.

Eugene Han: Congratulations on your win Chad. You have successfully retained the BMX Vert title you won in last year’s KIA X Games Asia. It should be sweet after your latest injury troubles. How do you cope with all this injury setbacks?

Chad Kagy: It boils down basically to mental strength. If you are determined enough, you can accomplish your goals and you are not going to let anything stand in your way. Unfortunately, my bad luck, as you pointed out, with injuries I had 12 surgeries including several knee surgeries - last year I shattered my collarbone. I had three or four years out of my bike for over the last ten or 12 years. Which is a lot of time but I don’t let that stuff set me back.

Some people get an injury and that’s it they are done. They don’t wanna get injured like that again. I don’t want to get hurt like that again. But rather than giving up, I figure out why I got hurt, what went wrong in the trick, how to fix it, how to make my riding smoother and solve the problems for future so that wouldn’t happen again. It’s just a constant evolution.

EH: So Kagy, have you thought of documenting your injuries into a book?
 
Chad Kagy (laughs): I had a couple of magazines that featured two-page layouts with my full body which point to different parts of my injuries. So I can only take up two pages of a magazine with my injuries.

EH: Do injuries make-or-break an X Games athlete?

Chad Kagy: Injuries are just part of it. Seriously, some people do get injured one time and they quit. But it took them really four years to get injured. So four years of riding really well at the top level but they don’t have that fear set in. And that fear sets some people apart. I whacked myself over and over again. And I overcome the fear and overcome the pain and I wake up some days and it just hurts.

EH: Did you ever want to give up?

Chad Kagy: No, because the smile I get on my face and the feeling of accomplishment when I pull a new trick like today. Everything I worked on my entire life riding my bike has culminated in this gold medal I just won at the Asian X Games. I have fun in what I’m doing and I love doing it – it makes me smile. And this is the outcome. I get this to do for a job.

EH: Do you get to people coming up to you for advice all the time?

Chad Kagy: Absolutely all the time. Especially where I live. I live near Woodward camp, so being close to this camp is great. I am going to train 100 kids every week for 14 weeks during the summer. This is a bunch of kids whom I can go riding with and introduce myself to 'em. They have seen me in magazines and on TVs. That’s what they usually see me on TV and they can’t figure out the real person. Now I get to sit down and ride with them and teach them how to do tricks - stuff I get to do. And it fully inspires them.

Now that I am been doing this for so long, I have got people coming up to whom I think are absolutely amazing riders and they remind me ‘Hey by the way, eight years ago you taught me how to drop into a ramp. I was horrible. Now I can do backward tail-flips and if you can’t I can show you” It’s now turned full circle.

EH: Wow that must have felt great. So everyone’s quite closely-knit in this sport?

Chad Kagy: We’re more like family. When you weed out people who aren’t interested in it; when injuries drop a few people out or when sometimes life just changes, the people left are the real deal. I have met the most amazing people while riding. I have friends all around the world and I’m welcomed everywhere I go. Everybody is just like family.

EH: But this is still a competition where there’re winners and losers.

Chad Kagy: You see we are competing against each other, but if you are really watching the deck of the competition, while he (Tim Wood) was riding I’m up there yelling and clapping whatever trick I like to see next whenever he’s lost or he's done a couple of blank airs: I know what he can do next, he can do anything. Same with him (Koji Kraft) I know he was getting lost so I’m yelling out the tricks he knows how to do when he’s just getting blank out there. So I am helping out way that I can. They are doing the same thing when I’m out there.

My outlook is I want everybody to ride the best they can. ‘Cos when everybody ride their best then you really find out who’s really the best.