Austin Forkner Shares Video Update on Instagram
Following a horrific crash at the Arlington Supercross over the weekend, Austin Forkner has taken to Instagram to provide an update. While leading the race in the later stages, Forkner cased a jump in a rhythm section, which tossed his weight forward. His left arm blew off the handlebars and he was ejected from his bike on the right side of the track, slamming down hard head, neck, and shoulders first. It was a scary crash to watch but eventually Forkner was up on his own feet walking to the Alpinestars medical cart with the help of the medical team. It was another tough blow for a guy who unfortunately has had a lot of hard crashes and significant injuries in his career.
In a ten-minute video posted Wednesday afternoon, Forkner himself was very transparent. The Missouri native talked about his crash, people reaching out to him, rewatching the crash himself after not really knowing what happened in the moment, his injuries from the crash, and more. He was vulnerable, even getting emotional recalling how thankful he was the crash did not result in worse injuries.
Posts about injuries are a regular occurrence in this sport. We have all seen riders post about dealing with this injury or X-ray scans of that injury, but Forkner got on camera and laid it all out there. Tough break for the long-time Kawasaki rider, who appeared to be set up to make a strong push at the 250SX East Region title after a huge comeback win at the championship opener. Here are some snippets of the video, which you can watch in full below.
“It's pretty simple. I came up about two inches short on that jump and whenever I went down and all my weight went forward. I have my bad arm [left arm] that I've had all those nerve surgeries on and it's weak and lost all that muscle, which is the arm that blew off. Threw my weight forward. Obviously, my hand just blew off and it was game over after that.”
“So, I guess [moving on to] what happened in the crash, I broke my L3 and L4, the transverse processors or tabs or whatever that come off of the spine, I broke those on L3 and L4 on my right side. I broke my, my scapula or my shoulder blade, all the way across the top into my into my like shoulder socket. So, across the top and then into my shoulder socket. I had bleeding in my lungs. Still coughing up some blood this morning. Bleeding or bruising in my lungs or whatever. And then obviously, they said I was out for like five minutes. Three to five minutes, it doesn't really matter. I mean, I was knocked out for a long time. And yeah, that wasn't good. So, those are the injuries I know of as of right now. I'm going to get more MRIs. I need an MRI of the shoulder just to make sure I didn't tear any ligaments in the shoulder. We didn't do any MRI stuff. We just did cat scans and X-rays at the hospital. So, I need an MRI of the shoulder for sure. I may need even another look at my back just to make sure that that's all that I did was break those tabs off because that's like best case scenario that I did that.”
Initial reports are he will not need surgery on any of the injuries. About halfway through the video he started tearing up.
“I know I'm really, really lucky. I'm really blessed. I'm really blessed, I'm lucky I came away from that like I did. I watched the crash like the next day or a couple days after I just broke down and cried because how bad it could have been. I had people texting me like, “Are you okay?” “Are you alive?” “Can you walk?” And I didn't understand until I watched the crash back. But that was probably one of the scariest crashes I've ever had, or I've ever seen, period. I'm really fortunate and blessed that this is all that I did. And I mean, I'm pretty messed up throughout my body, but as far as that I can feel anything below the neck or that I'm alive in general is… I'm very fortunate and very blessed. But that one scared me. That scared me a lot after watching it back.”
“Again, it's so early. So, like, the fourth day after I got hurt. I don't, you know, I shouldn't even be thinking about this stuff. I don't know what this means right now for me or my future or whatever, you know, riding and stuff related. I shouldn't even be thinking about this stuff right now, but that's just how I work. I'm always, ‘What's next, what's next.’”
“I always talk to God and ask for signs and ask for and to show me this and show me that. Maybe this is just another milestone or another thing for me to overcome, you know, it's just gonna add to my story. But at some point, you gotta start thinking that maybe he's trying to show me something, you know.”
“I know the whole recovery process. I know that I need to wait because as the body starts to heal, the mind starts to heal as the time starts to go by the mind starts to forget about, you know, the pain you were in or being in the hospital and how scary and uncomfortable that was and just things like that, you start to forget all that stuff. As the body starts to get better, the mind starts to heal with time.”
Check out his full video.
Ryan Hughes, who has been Forkner’s on bike riding coach since July 2023, posted a video on Sunday, where he explained his perspective on the crash, working with Forkner in the preseason, and more. This video is also worth a watch, although note there is strong language used.
He also posted a photo with Forkner on Tuesday that read:
“Same warrior spirit just different generations - @austinforkner is home, moving and sharp as ever! People have no idea of what this man has gone though and it looks like nothing happened - amazing what kind of toughness this sport produces in us all. Watching it or going through it! #chargelife”
Adam Cianciarulo, Forkner’s teammate on Monster Energy/Pro Circuit Kawasaki for a handful of years, posted a video on his Facebook story. As we all know, Cianciarulo's career has been filled with highs (wins, podiums) and lows (crashes, injuries) as well. Here is what Cianciarulo had to say.
“After watching Austin crash last night, I don’t know about you, but I was sick to my stomach, man. We all know the story, how he’s built himself back up. From first-hand experience…I’m pretty good with words, but it’s hard to articulate how hard it is to keep coming back and specifically, how he’s done it. And how he still has the raw speed and the skill and the determination, the courage it takes to keep doing that is incredible. It’s worthy of respect.”
“I just had this thought afterwards that I wanted to share with you guys and it’s that, it’s easy to look at things—specifically sport—in black and white terms. You know, ‘Why does this keep happening?’ ‘What’s he doing wrong?’ It’s easy to do that. And he did make a mistake last night, he carried too much speed into that section and wasn’t able to get enough height to catch the downside of the tabletop, and that’s what happens. But [if] he goes two inches further, [or] two inches shorter, who knows, that could have been enough for him to keep his hand on the bar and everything would have been fine. And that’s just what happens. I know you guys know it. I know there’s times in your life where you’ve done everything right and it still hasn’t worked out for you. And we don’t always know why that is. It can be incredibly frustrating and sad and everything. But I think we need stories like that. We need guys like Austin that keep coming back, that keep fighting, even when things don’t work out, as much as we need the Eli Tomacs and the Cooper Webbs and the Ken Roczens, Jett Lawrences, James Stewarts, Ricky Carmichaels of the world. I think there is a lot of value in the character in everything it takes to keep coming back like that. That’s really all I had to say. Hope he gets better soon and hope you guys have a great Sunday.”
