Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. Cancelled
Sledheads
SANTA MONICA, CA (December 17, 2010)
- Levi LaVallee was injured on Tuesday, December 14, while practicing
in Southern California for his planned world record snowmobile distance
jump at this year's Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.
event, set to take place in San Diego on December 31 and telecast on
ESPN. LaVallee was immediately transported to a local hospital where he
is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery. As a
result of this incident, however, it has been decided that Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. will be cancelled this year.
The safety of Red Bull's world-class athletes is
paramount, and all precautions were taken during LaVallee's testing
sessions to ensure he could perform in the safest-possible setting.
Leading up to the event, LaVallee, 28, from
Longville, MN, worked with athlete performance experts, aerodynamics
experts and engineers, in addition to his core team, in an effort to get
the most out of his body and snowmobile. During testing, LaVallee
jumped an astounding 361 feet, eclipsing the existing record by 60 feet.
This jump will be submitted for world record certification.
LaVallee has had a very successful career in several
snowmobile disciplines. A snocross racer for more than 15 years, he took
up freestyle in 2007, and at Winter X Games 12 in 2008, he won the gold
medal in the Freestyle and Speed & Style events and was named
Athlete of the Games. In 2009, he won the Pro Stock Snocross
championship and came thisclose
to landing the first-ever snowmobile double backflip at Winter X 13,
garnering global media attention. Earlier this year, at Winter X 14, he
took gold in the newly-created Snowmobile Knock Out event, his seventh
Winter X Games medal.
LaVallee was to be the fourth athlete to star in Red
Bull's annual New Year's Eve celebration on ESPN, which highlights
extraordinary athletes pushing their physical, mental and technical
limits to break boundaries and records. Robbie Maddison jumped his
motorcycle 322 feet over a football field in Las Vegas in 2007 and
followed it up in 2008 by jumping onto - and off - of the 96-foot-tall
Arc De Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas. Also in 2008, Rhys Millen
backflipped an off-road truck. Last year, Travis Pastrana jumped his
rally car 269 feet over water, landing on a barge in Long Beach's
Rainbow Harbor.
