Dave Mirra

In 1987, when Mirra was only thirteen years old, he began competing and had a sponsor, Haro Bikes. It was already a career for the teen. Haro gave him a bike and paid for him to go to competitions. As ESPN2 started airing BMX stunt competitions on the air, the sport exploded in popularity, and Mirra was one of its best known young riders.

Mirra was given the nickname of Miracle Boy in 1992 because he did tricks that observers thought could not be pulled off as well as the ability to make the tricks look easy. Mirra invented moves like the half-hairspin tailwhip, which has not been repeated. Describing what it feels like to ride in vert (tricks done on a half pipe), one of the BMX events Mirra competed in, Steven Daly wrote in Rolling Stone, "Take the most cursory of spins on a BMX bike and you'll discover just how sensitive the handlebars are; look directly down one of those eleven-foot half-pipes and your stomach will do a half-barspin tailwhip. To even think about hurling yourself off the edge with forty pounds of BMX between your legs brings home the spleen-shattering reality of Dave Mirra's chosen profession."