Vicki Golden, known to some in the freestyle motocross community, as “Gnarly Vicki” began riding dirt bikes with her father and brother. “My dad and my brother loved riding dirt bikes and jealousy got the best of me.” That competitive edge pushed Vicki to become one of the best female motocross racers in the field, propelling her to the up and coming world of professional women’s motocross. Her drive earned her three X-Games gold medals in women’s motocross and the first appearance by a woman in an AMA Arena Cross Premier night show.

The road to moto excellence hasn’t been easy. Vicki tore her ACL/MCL in 2011, has no ACL, MCL or meniscus in her left knee, and has a torn meniscus in her right knee. Vicki was injured badly in 2018 at a freestyle show when a freak accident lead to a shattered heel and emergency surgery. Vicki, who took the injury in stride, ascribes her matter of fact attitude towards life’s obstacles to her dad, was who was paralyzed as a result of an ATV accident.

“When my dad crashed, he asked ‘Is my bike good? Can I keep riding?’ So, I’ve always carried that with me. If I get knocked down while racing, I knew if I could get up, then I was getting up and I was finishing. If my dad could do it like that, then I know I would have to.”

Vicki’s perseverance in the face of multiple surgeries and months of rehab have inspired other moto riders. “To this day, I still have people hitting me up on social media and telling me about their injuries. They tell me that I have inspired them to work hard in order to get back on a motorcycle. Reading those messages verifies that what I’m doing by riding again is the right decision.”

Vicki continues to rack up achievements in the sport, literally breaking barriers by riding through 13 “gates of fire” to shatter a World Record set by Evel Knievel in 2006. In 2019, Vicki also became the first female to perform a backflip off the 15-foot Next Level ramp, one of the largest in the world.

“There was stuff I wanted to do, and even though there wasn’t a women’s category for it, I went out and did it anyways. Don’t hold yourself to someone else’s standards. If you want to go for it, go for it.”

Vicki wears CTi Custom knee braces and Formfit Ankle braces to protect her joints when she rides. She hasn’t had a knee injury since donning her first CTi set in 2018.