Ethen Roberts

Ethen Godrey Roberts (born July 15, 1990), is a professional Freeride Mountain Bike and FMX rider known for his participation with the extreme sports show Nitro Circus. He's the first to land a triple backflip on a mountain bike and has since become a pioneer of big mountain bike tricks, like a tsunami double backflip (2013) and triple backflip (2014). He's a pioneer athlete in the Snow Bike Winter X Games event, eventually winning a bronze medal in the 2019 Snow-Bike Best Trick event. He's also the nephew of the legendary action sports pioneer Gregg Godfrey who is the co-founder of Nitro Circus.

Ethen Roberts
Personal information
Nationality America
BornJuly 15, 1990
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sport
SportFreeride Mountain Bike, Freestyle Motorcross, Snow Bike
Event(s)X Games, Nitro Circus, Nitro World Games, Red Bull Rampage, Crankworx
Medal record
Competition
2019 Winter X-Games Aspen Snow Bike Best Trick

Personal

Ethen grew up in Salt Lake City, he grew up in a location prime for action sports with an active family. His mother was a Professional Gymnast that had a career-ending injury from being on the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. While his very close uncle is an action sports pioneer. Ethan states his family was "practically born backflipping dirtbikes and snowboards". Also stating “I was introduced to action sports by Gregg Godfrey, as soon as I was basically born,” Ethen says. He started racing motorcycles when he was 3 years old and eventually got into BMX racing too, but the freestyle eventually won him over in the end. “I loved racing, but I loved jumping more.” [1] At age 19, he left for Argentina for two years on a mission for his church, he spent those entire two years away from action sports completely. He didn't ride anything at all, just devoted himself to his mission until he was 21. He was one of the youngest kids to backflip a motorbike, doing so at the age of 14. On January 5, 2020, he and his wife Heather welcomed a boy, York, their second child.

Career

Ethen has adapted several tricks that he did first on a mountain bike that was adapted from FMX, like the scorpion double backflip and the backflip double grab superman. In 2013, he started competing and had his first viral moment with the tsunami double backflip. He submitted to compete in the inaugural Red Bull Phenom MTB Slopestyle event at 2013 X-Games Munich, although he did not get selected.[2] Over the years he quietly became world-class on a mountain bike, cementing that status in 2014 when he and Gavin landed the first-ever MTB triple backflips.[3] Later in 2014, Roberts landed the first-ever Superman Double Backflip, he was nominated for Outstanding New Limit, ESPN Sport Science Newton Awards for the trick.[4]

In 2017, He was in a Nitro Circus TV produced short-series Off the Grid with his brother and Godfrey clan where they featured various FMX and MTB tricks pushing the limits on the iconic Red Bull Rampage mountain in Virgin, Utah. Where he would complete his first year in the event for preliminary qualification runs, he ultimately not qualifying for the Main Event.

In 2018, he competed in Red Bull Rampage and placed 17th overall as well as completing, later competing in the first inaugural Snow Bike Best Trick event at X-Games Aspen 2018. He has been known for interchanging his style of Mountain Biking and FMX in competition.

In 2019, he was featured in a clothing brand Commercial by Douchebags where they would ride their mountain bikes jumping out of helicopters with them. The shorts gained attention throughout social media.

References
  1. "Ethen Roberts Is a High-Flying Family Man". Nitro Circus. 2016-03-25. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  2. "Ethan Roberts's official X Games athlete biography". X Games. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  3. Newport, Kyle. "Gavin Godfrey Performs the 1st-Ever Triple Backflip on a Mountain Bike". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
  4. "TV: ESPN Sport Science Newton Awards Nominees, Categories and Presenters Announced". www.malakye.com. Retrieved 2020-11-26.
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