Motocross, X Games star Archer dies at age 27
lete Jayden “Jayo” Archer, an X Games medalist and
the first rider to perform a triple backflip in competition, died while
practicing the trick Wednesday morning in his hometown of Melbourne,
Australia. He was 27.
A beloved member of the Australian motocross community and the Nitro
Circus, the action sports media brand started by multisport star Travis
Pastrana, Archer was known for pushing the progression of freestyle
motocross at a time when there was little external reward for doing so.
“This really hit home,” Pastrana told ESPN. “Jayo grew up in a time when
action sports was at its biggest, and he always wanted to do the big stuff
like the double and the triple, even though there weren’t a lot of places
to showcase those bigger tricks. He’d get up every morning at 4 a.m. and go
to the gym before work so he could ride his dirt bike. When he came to
Maryland to train, he stayed at my house and was an incredible role model
to my kids. He was a great human first, a hard worker second and a bad
motherf—er third.”
One of only three riders ever to land the triple backflip on a dirt bike,
Archer became the first rider to land the trick in competition in November
2022, when he landed it during Best Trick at Nitro World Games in Brisbane,
Australia.
“I cannot describe this feeling,” Archer said that day. “This is so much
more than a trick to me. I’ve dedicated my entire life the last three years
to this moment. There were a lot of obstacles and broken bones and
knockouts, and I would do it 100 times over to relive that moment again.”
After the interview, Archer took the microphone, knelt on one knee and
proposed to his girlfriend, Beth King, who was standing nearby. The couple
was engaged to be married this year.
“No one had a bigger heart or more determination than Jayo,” Ricky Melnik,
senior vice president and GM of Nitro Circus, told ESPN. “We called him the
Incredible Hulk. He was a beast on the bike and a gentle giant off it.
Watching him go through the process of learning and landing the triple flip
in competition was so inspiring. He wanted to take FMX to the next level
and go further than anyone had gone before.”
A member of the Nitro Circus for more than a decade, Archer performed in
his first show in 2012 and worked as an assistant mechanic for years before
rising to be one of its stars. He last performed the triple backflip
publicly at a Nitro Circus Live Show in Jay, Oklahoma, in June 2023 and was
working on becoming the first rider to land a quadruple backflip.
A two-time X Games medalist and a suspension technician and mechanic for
Raceline Performance and Factory Husqvarna Racing in Australia, Archer took
bronze in Best Trick at last summer’s X Games California in Ventura.
“We are deeply saddened by Jayo Archer’s passing and our thoughts and
prayers go out to his parents and fiancée,” Scott Guglielmino, interim COO
at X Games, said in a statement to ESPN. “One of the most committed and
charismatic FMX riders, Jayo will be missed by the X Games family.”
Source: Freestyle motocross athlete Jayden “Jayo” Archer, an X Games medalist and the first rider to perform a triple backflip in competition, died Wednesday morning in Melbourne, Australia. He was 27.
