Every sport loves a good comeback story, and for Michael Mosiman it had been almost three years—since the Denver Supercross in April 2022—since his last podium. Speed has never been Mosiman’s problem, he has always had the speed to run up front and win races. Michael also will never cheat you on effort, in fact his issue is he sometimes tries a little too hard, forcing the issue when he could have just taken a second or third, instead ending in a big crash. With those crashes came injuries, including a broken neck which almost ended his career.
It was his speed that made Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing take a chance on him, as many feel speed is hard to come by, but if speed is there, everything else can be taught. As Mosiman mentioned in the post-race press conference after his third overall at the Arlington SX, it is everything else he is trying to learn.
“It's a matter of just taking a little something every week: ‘Okay learn from that. All right, learn from that,'" Mosiman said. "And honestly, when I was younger, I feel like I didn't learn the things that I needed to learn. Like I would make mistakes and then I would make them again and I just feel like I've learned how to learn and build. So, I don't know if there's like a point where I was like, ‘Oh, this is how it's gonna go,’ but I'm still excited to see where it's gonna go and you know, if we can keep this trend up then that would be pretty sweet.”
Michael Mosiman's last two podiums:
| Position | Race | Class | Date | Bike |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | Supercross Arlington | 250SX West | February 22, 2025 | Yamaha YZ250F |
| 2 | Supercross Denver | 250SX West | April 30, 2022 | GasGas MC 250F |
Michael started the season off slow at A1 with a 15th, and has been building every weekend, going 9-7-5-3. That is quite the steep learning curve, and one Michael is happy with after everything he has been through.
“It means a lot," he said. "I've been through some really hard stuff, really gnarly injuries, and really stuff where it's like, ‘Man, can you come back from this? I'm not sure.’ You know, nights in a hospital bed and if you have the speed and but have these issues, it's like, ‘Okay, well, how are we gonna do it? How are we gonna get better? Can it happen? Will it happen?’ You know, the speed never goes away, and so it's just a matter of harnessing it and it's a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot, of work that's gone into this on just every level, interpersonal, identity stuff and all the way to narrow training my brain so that I can make better decisions in the moment. And so, it's just been a lot of work and it's exciting to see it start paying off, and I think it's just the start of a revival of my career.”
A podium after nearly three years sure seems like a resurgence of a career. But is it sustainable? Can a dog change his spots so to speak, and learn to calm down and not make so many mistakes? Maybe.
“I'm smiling, it just feels good, you know, it's a relief when you work and work and work and work and you get the results, and they pay off… I'm just excited for the future, you know, I think that this just validates a lot of the work we've been doing, and I think that there's still a lot of speed left. I think that I'm still riding at 80, 85, 90 [percent] I don't think I'm really going to 100, and I'm taking it uber cautious, you know, risk tolerance right now. And eventually I gotta get over that and I gotta take some more risk and that's just gonna build my confidence more and more. So, I think the sky's the limit, you know, some of the guys I battled with before are like, Jett Lawrence, you know, guys that are just light years ahead of my career. So, I think that there's no limit to put on it. I want to win a title, and that's really big, and so it's building the base. One guy, really old, he was a Jewish guy like 2000 years ago. He said that if you build a house on sand, it's gonna crash, but if you build a house on a rock, it's gonna last. And so, trying to build a good solid foundation and who knows where we can go from there.”
For now, all we know is that Michael Mosiman is still fast. Time will only tell if this new, mature Michael Mosiman is here to stay.
