LAURA THOMAS is a Journalism student at the University of Kansas and is currently working with ESPN America in Europe.

Things are about to get real. It’s the Monday before the start of X Games 17 and the athletes are arriving in sunny Los Angeles, boards, bikes and bandaged bones ready.  The new year brings new events, new names and new courses to the occasion that highlights the most extreme games in the world.  This is the World Series of Motocross, the Super Bowl of Skateboarding, the NBA Finals of BMX Freestyle and the Stanley Cup of Rally Racing.

In other words, this is the Olympics of action sport. 

Mike Metzger launches a one-handed superman seat grab in the first round of the Moto X Freestyle contest.

It’s no wonder that the “X” in X Games stands for eXtreme. Whether that be extremely crazy, extremely reckless or extremely out of your mind is up for interpretation, but to the participants and fans of the summer X Games, it’s nothing short of extreme excitement and extravagance. 

Shortly after the recent injury of Mike Metzger, the “Godfather” of FMX, many began to question the X Games, claiming it only cares about the money and not the safety of its athletes.  Metzger, who began training for X17 only a month after a serious injury in Slovakia, was hospitalized earlier this month after a bad crash left him with broken vertebrae in his back and neck, injured collarbones, a lacerated kidney and liver complications. 

Many blame the X Games for the pressure put on Metzger to begin training after just a month of recovery from his previous serious injuries.

Kyle Loza celebrates another well-deserved gold medal in the Best Trick final at the 2008 X-Games.

The thing with the X Games, as in any action sport throughout the world, is that this is what each athlete lives for. They live for the danger, the thrill and the drive they get while hovering above their bike, 50 feet in the sky, nothing between them and their ride but air; or the ecstasy you see in the eyes of a skateboarder who has just landed what he has taken months to perfect.

These guys don’t do it because of the “pressure” put on them from the sport, but because they are true professionals and above all athletes.

Take Kyle Loza for instance.  He is trying to win his fourth gold medal in Moto X Best Trick at X17.  After having to withdraw from the X Games last year due to a broken wrist, he is returning to prove that he isn’t quitting. 

What’s more is that he is returning with his wrist still broken; he said this year he just learned to deal with the pain.  How many athletes play with an injury like his? It’s safe to say the number is somewhere in between slim and none. 

Jed Mildon - King of the Triple Back Flip.

There is no doubt that the X stands for extremely dangerous. The Athlete Recovery Fund, or ARF was created as a non-profit to provide financial assistance in the form of grants to professional BMX, FMX and skateboard athletes in catastrophic cases where medical insurance falls short.  There was a reason for this.

After Jed Mildon flipped his way into the record books by completing the first BMX Triple Back Flip, one cynical fan summed it best when he wrote, “Congratulations on what many more will try and emulate, resulting in a lot of money for the specialty doctors, like spinal, brain and especially of the orthopedic variety.”

These guys are not naïve, they just understand that to them the love of the sport outweighs any danger or medical bill that may be written in the fine print.

So as these athletes gather in Los Angeles for the start of X Games 17 this Thursday, broken wrists and other injuries won’t be running through their minds.  Instead, they gather to celebrate their love for extreme sport as they fly through the air attempting the impossible time and time again.  Not many people can defy gravity like those of the X Games.

X Games 17 on ESPN America
To follow X Games 17 LIVE on ESPN America (July 28th – 31st) go to our dedicated X Games Page (with video from XG16 and XG17) or for On Demand coverage go to X Games on ESPN Player.

Also, to for a chance to win one of ten Limited Edition X Games 17 Skateboard Decks, click here to enter.