X Games: Women’s Enduro X brings falls and a Forsberg gold

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Action sports athletes describe the X Games as their version of the Olympics. The effort in the Women’s Moto X Enduro X race fell far short of Olympian, as more than half the seven racers fell off their motorcycles at some point in the six-lap race. Some of them fell off multiple times.

Maria Forsberg managed to stay on her bike throughout the treacherous course, complete with tires, rock pits, a pile of split lumber, log paths, fallen trees and a water pit. Thanks to that consistency, Forsberg claimed a gold medal.

PHOTOS: X Games 17 flies high at Staples Center

Tarah Gieger overcame a fall in the first 100 feet of the race to take silver. Gieger also claimed silver in the Moto X Racing final Saturday.

Both Forsberg and Gieger passed Kacy Martinez, who held the lead from the start. About halfway through the race, Martinez fell in a rock pit, and Forsberg gained on her but could not make the pass. Martinez fell again on the next obstacle, atop the main dirt-mound in the Staples Center, and Forsberg capitalized on the mishap.

Martinez held on to snag the final spot on the podium.

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-- Douglas Farmer