Hello friends, and welcome to the Powerful Podcast. I'm your host AJ McCord.
In this podcast, we introduced you to powerful women who were changing the game in and outside of their field of play. These are women's stories, women who happen to be doing things that many of us can only dream of, but the lessons and inspiration they share is universal.
Hello friends, welcome back to the Powerful Podcast. I'm your host AJ McCord, and I could not be more excited to introduce you to a woman who is a trailblazer. She is a badass and yet she's doing it all just by being herself. And she has made an impact in moto sports for women and girls to look up to. She represented as the only female in Motoac's Best Whip at the X Game's thirtieth anniversary event in Salt Lake
City earlier this summer. Vicki Golden is as much of a powerhouse off her bike as she is on it. And I cannot wait for you to get to know this woman under the hell and the gear, who's always out there with the boys, pushing the envelope at every single rev of the engine. This is a powerful podcast. I am so excited because there is hardly a first in moto that she has not done. She has three X Games gold medalist. She was an eSPI nominated athlete
for the Best Female Action Sports Athlete. She was Let's see where else do we go from here? My gosh. She won a bronze medal and Moto X whip. She was the first female member of SoCal Female motocross team medal Militia. She was the first one to do a backflip on the moon Booter ramp, which I cannot wait to hear more about a nitro circus. Vicki Golden, thank you so much for joining the Powerful podcast.
Absolutely, thank you for having me.
I'm so thrilled because I feel like I've been watching your highlight reels in sort of preparation for this interview, and every single time you take off on a ramp, I lose my breath. I'm like, oh, my gosh. But you're so confident and so skilled and so dare I say, as you go off of these ramps and perform these chick there's just a flow to it that is so powerfully beautiful to watch. So the first question I want to ask you is, what is a moment this week that made you feel powerful.
Man, it's been tough. Just this whole X Games invite was very last minute. I was coming here anyways to be the FMX analysis and he'll commentate and just talk about how gnarly all my friends are. So this invite came in very last minute, and we were very underprepared. We didn't have a bike ready. I just shipped my last bike to a show that's coming that I have to do after X Games, so we didn't even have a bike ready. So it was kind of just a last minute hustle. So I really didn't have time to
get ready. And we have a new ramp called the Next Gin, which is not what I typically ride, and it's not what most athletes have access to, especially where I live. So it was just like, Okay, we're coming here, We're going to try this new ramp that I've never jumped before, and yeah, it was just just kind of
a wild thing. So it was just kind of a good question goal to tick off and just and just see what I can do off of it when I've never jumped it before and it's typically not you know, a lot of the guys are like, this is not like how you're supposed to do this, but you're doing it anyway. So it's just cool to like get that.
I guess, you know, the props from all the other guys of you know, what I'm doing just to exist and live and breathe and operate this way, and they're just you know, they're very impressed, which is is very humbling because what they do is unbelievable.
Yes, And I feel like that refrain is something that I hope you've been told your entire life, Like I hope you have been told your entire life that what you're doing is incredibly impressive, because it is. You started writing at about five years old, right, So how did you get into motocross supercross?
How did you get into writing? Man? Just my dad he had a two wheeled passion from as far back as I can remember. He just he loved dirt bikes. He loved random and that was that was the same passion he kind of just passed on to me, And even through ups and downs in the sport, he still freaking love dirt bikes. So I think it's just I just have a love and passion for it. So that's what's carried me so far, is that I'll be out there first and I'll be the last one out there.
Is just because I love riding like I just can't stop well. And that reminds me the whole reason we're linking up here. We are at the X Games in Salt Lake City. You're the only woman in the field here in Moto X You're going to compete in best Whip.
So can you break down for us what is best whip?
Yeah?
Absolutely, best whip is a category where you're trying to get your bike upside down, backwards, you know, any which way of opposite you know, upright rotation or direction I should say, And it's just you know, trying to bring it backwards and bring it back towards the landing or bring it upside down and up you know, inverted and then hit the landing. So that's basically what a whip is.
It's something kind of like a style thing in motocross racing that is like a show off typing in racing, to where it's become this own category to where who can basically show off the biggest.
I guess so sick and I've been able to watch a little bit of practice, and so I'm excited to talk a little bit more about X games in your career currently, but I want to go back to what you were telling me about your dad, because I know he's a massive part of your story, and you mentioned some of the ups and downs, but his consistency and two things throughout it, which is one his love of dirt bikes and his love of riding, and to his support of you, his daughter competing in all of these
very much male dominated field. I think it was you were in your teens before you competed in a women's division, because I don't know how few women there were.
Doing what you did.
Tell me a little bit more about your dad.
Yeah, he was unbelievable. He just had a die hard passion for two wheels and he wasn't necessarily, you know, the best level you know rider. I think he grew up racing and I think when I was around racing with him, he was in the VET novice class, which that's two below or two or three below professional levels. So he just you know, it wasn't about how fast you can go. It was just he wanted to have fun and he enjoyed it and it was something we
could do as a family. So that was just something he passed on to me was that just die hard passion of just two wheels. So even after he got hurt, he ended up getting paralyzed when I was about twelve or thirteen, and even after, he still loved the sport. So you know, how do you look at that and say something you could absolutely understand hating? He still freaking loved the sport, so you know, we still shared that, you know, till he passed aways. Anytime he wanted to talk,
he was about dirt bikes. He loved it.
What was it like to grow up with him so die hard in your corner?
It was just natural really, I mean every parent you know wants to be, you know, your biggest supporter, and they sometimes they want it more than you do. So it was it was cool like he always did whatever he could. Him and my mom always did with what they could. They were never, you know, the best off financially, so they worked really hard to give me what I needed to go and ride and compete and just you know,
go ride and have fun. So just to see how hard they work just to give me that, you know, it just you know, once again, it just fell on to me of like I can't waste you know, their harder and money at this So it just became of, you know, we were taking it seriously but having fun along the way, and there was no pressure they put
on me. It was just I saw how hard they were working, and I didn't want to waste their money and you know, not do what the trainer would tell me to do, or you know, not ride as much as I should for the entry fee of going to ride in a practice track. So I just didn't want to waste their money, so I just put in the work.
It sounds like the thread is very much you were raised on appreciation for what you have and like really committing to going after your goals and absolutely really making sure that you don't half ass anything. And I think what we know to be true in a lot of extreme sports is that actually half assing is probably the worst thing you can do.
Absolutely, it's honestly the most dangerous thing is when you start half assing things. Is when you're half in and your mind's maybe half out. So that's where things get dangerous. And that's honestly, usually when a lot of us get hurt is when we're not one hundred percent focused or we're half focused and have maybe having almost too much fun and not paying attention to what we're doing is usually what happens and we hit the ground. So try and stay one hundred percent focused. And I mean it
still happens. There's there's still times you're gonna hit the ground, but try to minimize this.
I was a whitewater rafting guide in college and we had a saying that was hesitation is devastation because if you hesitate, you know, there's like a million paths that you can choose on a river and based on the water level or like what rocks of me that like, based on a million different factors, you can take a different route and the worst thing you can do is hesitate, because it's like then it leads to devastation. You end up hitting the side, you end up flipping into its terror.
I can attest my worst days on the river was when I hesitate.
Always is when you're always paying attention. Yeah, that's exactly how it goes. And even yeah, I don't know. Every time I hop on a bike, I know if I can just trust what I have inside of the muscle memory I have on a bike, that's usually what gets me through. If I start thinking overthinking. That's when bad stuff usually happens.
So you turned pro in your teams. But this mindset is so critical to your success, I can imagine. Yeah, So how did you develop that mindset? Because I feel like in every sport, like the mentality side of the game is at least half of it.
Oftentimes it's more depending on the sport.
So for you, you developed this incredible ability on a bike, But how did you learn the mental side of what it took to be the best?
It definitely took a lot of years. I mean I don't think I got I mean I don't think there's ever a finish line to how mentally strong it can be. So that's usually what keeps you pushing for more. But just throughout my years of racing and things like that, I went and raced Men's Professional Supercross, and my biggest weakness was pulling the trigger on certain obstacles and it
was just you know, too little, too late. And if I would have just pulled this trigger sooner, I would have gotten comfortable quicker, and you know a lot of times would have gotten better. And I just waited way too long. And part of it was that I wasn't
one hundred percent comfortable with what I was on. But once I transitioned into free ride and freestyle and got on the four fifty, which is a bigger motorcycle than I was racing with and just having almost endless power, it would just kind of opened up a whole new world for me to where I wasn't worried about, oh, I don't know if my bike can make that because I didn't have the power, and just having that mindset of like, okay, you have you have no excuse now,
like you have all the power in the world, your bike is fully set up to what you want. Now it's time to work on your weaknesses, which was mentally for me and just I kind of just struggled a little bit to pull the trigger, And honestly what made it better was knowing how long it takes me compared to the guys to warm up and get comfortable back in. I think when I first started going to X Games,
we were only allotted about fifteen minute practice. Wow, So I didn't want to waste five of it trying to figure, you know, get my timing to even jump the jump right. So that was that was kind of my first main goal, is I think it was. I think it was text When I realized that we were only getting about fifteen minutes. I didn't even test around the ramp. I just went and jumped it before anybody, any of the guys, And that way I saved myself five minutes so I could
get comfortable. Because once they jump it, they're instantly comfortable. It just took me a little bit longer. So I had to find a way to give myself back the advantage and just be on that level playing field with them. And that just initialized realizing that if I just trust my gut, we don't have to go through this like, oh I don't know if I got it, I don't know, and just go this overthinking campster wheel that ends up happening. So even today, you know, we had this new ramp.
I've never jumped it before, and before I could get myself to overthink it, I just went and did it. So it's worked so far, so I'm gonna keep doing it.
Yeah. Well, and it's incredible because I think it's so fascinating to talk with women who had to compete against men growing up because there just weren't many women in right sport, and so you do have to find a way, like you said, to get back that advantage. How do I make sure that I can like compete among a class of people that in a lot of sports you don't have to write there's fens divisions in a lot of other sports. What is the thing growing up competing
against the boys against the men? How did that shape you as a person and as an athlete?
I think it just shaped me the way of just always being kind of the underdog. I was never you know, we didn't really have a lot of women's categories for anything, so I've never really had a feeling of being the big fish in a little pond. I had it a little bit when X Games had women's mote across it and I was winning that. Once that yeah, once I won those, and then that kind of that discipline went away.
You know, I still wanted to go and compete X Games, and there was only one category for me to go, so I went into Best Whip and thankfully they were gracious enough to give me the chance and the opportunity to get that invite. And then it just turned into just kind of just you don't really have the option of like the way I look at is the obstacle doesn't care whether you're man or a minute. You have
to jump at regardless. The same thing when I go to Red Bull imagination, you can be the best in the world because you have to be to do the obstacles just to be there. So that's kind of where I got this, you know, more of a stronger mentality of just truly understanding, like these guys technically are better, but my mindset just it probably sounds delusional, but like the way I look at them, I'm like, I'm like, I'm here to beat them. Whether I do it or
not is a different story. But I'd rather aim for first and get fifth than aim for fifth and get eight. So I'd just rather, you know, look at them and say, I'm no different, Let's do this and see where we go, because I'd rather not be like, well it'd be nice to get like six. You know, that's that's not really a good way to think. So yeah, just being around all these guys and they're so helpful too, Like we're a big family, so you know, they're all we're all
here for each other, especially in our discipline. There's there's only one place to crash, and if we crash on what we do, it's never good, so none of us we don't want to see our friends get hurt. So we're just such a big family that we all support each other. You know, it's no different you know, man or a woman. It's just we're here to ride our bikes and have fun and try and do it safely.
Is there an element I feel like right now the conversation in women's sports in general is about sort of owning the space that you're in and like trying to, I guess, change the narrative around imposter syndrome in particular, where it's like, you know, hey, we don't we shouldn't have this imposter syndrome, and how do we battle that and how do we ensure that the next generation just
doesn't even like wonder if they belong? I feel like talking with you, that's something that you have developed throughout your career. Like I don't hear any imposter syndrome. I don't hear any like, oh, I wonder if I don't belong because I'm the only woman. It's like, no, I'm gonna shoot for first and if I get fifth, cool, but like I'm giving it my best and I belong here.
How did you develop that. I mean, I think it had to do with the guys I was riding with around. They kind of pulled my girl card a long time ago to where it was like, Hey, if we're jumping this, you gotta jump this, and say and vice versa. There'd be moments where I would jump at first and then like, shoot,
now we gotta jump it. So it was just I mean, just being around, Like I'm just very lucky that the friends that I have and the friends and family I have just so happened to be the best in the world at what they do too, So just being around them and having their guidance too. But when it comes down to it, like I mentioned of an invite to hear or an invite to Red Bull Imagination, it's, you know, there's only it doesn't matter man or woman, like you have to know you belong. But that's where I also,
you know, kind of just trust in that too. I do have moments from my shoot. I don't know like if if this, you know, slot should have went to me and I'm like struggling, But usually it comes with something like I might have, you know, be aggravated an injury or something. Then it kind of just ticks off a little to my confidence. But that's when you know, my friends my family are like, you know, you're invited here for a reason. It's not like you just are
here just because you're a girl like that. That ain't gonna work here, you know, like there, you have to be able to do it to be able to even be invited here. So they're like if if if I don't believe myself, they believe me. And that's they usually are the ones that pick me up. But I have rare moments like that. But I've been around this sport
long enough to know that it all comes around. So I think so negatively when you can just clip all that and just move on and just figure it out with a smile on your fingers.
Yeah, don't worm up.
Just take the jump.
Yep, they just take the ram. We don't need to go through the rigor of and role of like the mental gymnastics that do I belong here? Do I know exactly? And am I invited because I'm a woman? Or am I invited because I'm one of the best And the answers your invited because you're one of the best, exactly.
So I just if I ever have those moments, which, like I said, they're rare, but they pop through every very while, and that's just why I'm like, well, you know, I'm here for a reason, so let's let's just do it. Yeah, let's save some time.
Yeah, I'm all about saving time.
Yeah. Yeah, logic comes into play somehow, and I'm just like, well, I'm gonna waste time.
Yeah, and I'm gonna end up in the same spot, which is with a with a spot.
At this event to do my best exactly.
Yeah, Okay, I want to talk about the injuries because I think that is one of the things that is universal across every single sport is how do you manage it? However, it is rare to be in a sport where your equipment outweighs you by a decent amount. How much does your bikeway? I believe it's around to fifty Okay, yeah, so that's like outweighs you by a decent junk of change. There,
How do you I mean? And I guess we could run through the list of injuries, but I know you're you're missing are you're missing several ligaments in one.
Of the knees? Yeah, I'm an m a shel orminuistcation in my left meee, we just we just run that cool cool okay that it comes and goes kind of gets reaggravated, but it's it's I mean, thankfully we have suspension on a bike, so it kind of makes up for, you know, the need not being the greatest. But my main injuries was almost lost my leg in two thousand and eighteen. Yeah, and just exploded my ankle, shattered my heel, every bone and foot was broken in some form, and
I developed compartment syndrome. Had a lot of complications. So eight surgeries and a year later I was back on
the bike. So that was a pretty hefty one. But the most recent one, and that's kind of what puts me in the tricky position I'm in now, is that I just recently got another injury to my wrists in my hand, and that one was kind of took me by surprise, so where I didn't really feel too much pain when I did the injury, but now coming back, it just almost feels like I'm catering and dealing with
an injury instead of recovering from one. So it's definitely been a long, tedious process of trying to get back to where I was before, I before I heard it?
Yeah, what is the thing? I mean, Dad? And obviously his accident was so severe with yeah, becoming paralyized. Is that where the I mean, how much did that I don't want to say inspire, but how much did that guide your approach to an injury?
It has a heavy influence on me because the first thing he said when he hit the ground and someone got to him, I gives my bike, Okay, can I keep riding? And I mean he's dealing with you know, mid chest paralysis down and he's just like keep riding. Just no clue. He's probably in shock. But sure when someone told me, I was just like, man, that that dude's insane. Like who says that once they just hit the ground and that happens, and it kind of just
it never shook his passion. So the men I hit the ground and I'm okay, like I'm getting to back up, you know, like if he if that's what the first thing that pops into his head of like is can I keep riding? You know That's where I'm like, yeah, I'm gonna get up if I can. Yeah. So that's kind of always a mentality always carred with me is like the job's not done until you finish. So if you if you're missing an armholl too bad. Like you're finishing.
So it's just a kind of just a personal goal to tick off always, Like obviously we don't want to hit the ground, but those are the moments when the minute your brain says, man, I really don't want to do this, So that's when my brain fights back and says, nope, well now you have to.
Yeah, what is the Like I keep coming back to, how did you develop that mentality? Because for me, it's such a fascinating you know, you're talking about dealing with significant injury, significant setback, significant you know, recovery time, and that is something that a lot of us can't relate to because the types of sports that we do, Like I'm never going to jump off from a ramp with a two hundred and fifteen pound bike under me and risk landing on me right, Like, I'm never going to
do that. But I feel like the development of that mentality like I deal with setbacks. I deal with smaller injuries that keep me from doing it, and so that's like the connection point that I feel like for those of you listening who are like, well, I'm never going to get on a dirt bike, I'm never going to be on a motocross. Well, sure, that's fine. But that's what I love about these sports and why sports connects us so much, is that there's still something to learn here.
And if I could like bottle up your resilience, well, actually you should bottle up your resilience and sell it for a million dollars a pop, because you'd make you'd make all the money. But like, how do you do that? How do you talk to yourself in those moments to pick yourself back up?
I think it just kind of came with years of doing it, unfortunately, of having those you know, emotional dips and then the highs and the lows that come with the sport or any sport or life even to where you always know, like especially when you when you're young and you get hurt, the world's over. When I'm hurt, now, I'm like great, it's the forced vacation, like this is great, and you know you kind of get to that step
away that I can't do myself because I'm too attached. Yeah, so I kind of I just have a better I think outlook. And at the same time too, I understand the roller coaster of emotions that go with every injury, of where even with my wrists of thinking, oh, it's never going to be the same, it's not going to get better, it always does. Life always comes back up. It's never to a point where things are fully over and it's not going to get better. You're only thinking that.
So I just have dealt with that so much that I just trust that the life process, it'll come back around. Yeah. And so if you just have trust in that, I just keep putting in my work I don't want. My program works for me and it builds me the way I need to be built and caters to all my needs and working on the weaknesses along the way. And I just trust in the program, even though it doesn't happen as quickly as I'd like. Sometimes it never does. It never does.
I don't care how quick you recover from an injury. It's never fast.
Yeah, But I mean to be fair, like, my risk has definitely tested me because as I mentioned when I when I heard it, it didn't even hurt that bad, and I ended up I dislocated a little bone in my wrist and it ruptured all the ligaments with it, and I thought I just maybe fractured my arm and it didn't even hurt that bad, and I went in and I'd nope, Like this thing was born as mythering and like potentially a career ending injury that I wasn't
even expecting or anticipating, because, like I said, just you break something and you're like, oh my gosh, like that's broken, it hurts really bad. I didn't really get a lot of pain with it, and it was just like a quick, you know, explosion, and then it was done with. So it didn't really anticipate the struggles that we're going to come with it. So it definitely threw me off a little bit and I didn't expect it to take this long.
And I still don't even feel like very comfortable on my bike, and I don't feel like myself because I'm dealing with such a big disconnect in my hand and trying to manage that with a disconnected you know, inkle of not having that mobility and feeling and comfort to where I have to take on this, and that was definitely very unexpected. So the emotional roller coaster was definitely I was I was taking a ride for that one. But at the same time, you just kind of like
make the best of it. You know, I could have easily said no, I don't think I can do this. You know, my wrist isn't where I want it to be. But at the same time, like no opportunity wasted, Like we have to come here and give it our best, and you know you can't just you can't tell X games no. So especially when I you know, I'm riding and I'm going to do shows and it's a lot
to work with. I can't ride for that long and as much as I want, and it's still just very hard for me to operate the bike and hold on the best I can. So there's a lot of setbacks. But at the same time, like you mentioned, like I just you know, we gotta try. It's just team never give up.
Yeah, you talk about team never give up. And one of the things that I think is so cool is your time in Nitro Circus and you are a Guinness World record holder because you broke let me read this so I don't get this incorrect. Okay, you hold the record for most wood walls of fire broken through on a motocross bike at thirteen, which was an Evil Canevil record, which is like an iconic like Evil Knievel is like the standard setter, right, and so on Evil Live Too.
You broke Evil's record by breaking through thirteen wood walls of fire. Yeah, okay, take us inside that entire experience. What was the setup? How does one train for breaking through wood walls of fire?
And we'll start there. Yeah, it was. It's definitely a different opportunity for me. I think, you know, Nitro and History Channel partnered and wanted to create Evil Live Too. And it was based along me and Axl Hodges and he's like a It's like a baby brother to me. So it was something super cool I got to do
with just you know, family environment. So obviously I said, yes, absolutely, let's do this and didn't really understand, you know, the severity or the danger point because I'm so used to doing everything that's dangerous in the air, and I kind of almost underplayed it a little bit because I was like, well, if you're not leaving the ground, how scary it can
it be. But you know, obviously, when you're in a completely different realm of something you've never done before, we can get a pretty hard reality check, but now it it was good. Definitely a lot different of just working all the kinks, and we did some testing of you know, going through walls not on fire, so that was that was the starting point of just you know, making sure things, you know, you go through the walls first before you
light them on fire. So we did that a little bit, and then you know, worked our way into the fire, which I'm glad we did because we found out very quickly that a lot of the problems that we had to take on where fumes and the smoke and I don't know, obviously most people have been around a campfire. The wind changes and the smoke right heat go into your face, and I was just getting that through the full pass and if you're by a campfire, you just turn around or look away and cover your eyes. And
can't do that. And the way they built the walls is that they were attached to metal beams to hold them up, so there was no exit point once I entered, and then I had the fumes and the heat and the smoke going in my eyes and we had one path that was pretty scary to where I was. I was my eyes were just closing and watering and I wanted to, you know, I was I wanted to get out, but there's no exit point by the time once you enter. So that was the most complicated part of just dealing
with all that. But you know, I worked very closely with Thehummets and one of the one of my homies works there, and he drove out immediately, brought some super glue and made sure he taped and closed all the events just so no fumes were getting in. And then we put an off road mask or skirt on and tucked that into my suit. And once we did that, things were a lot better. But it was it was also you know, midsummer and very hot, so then I had zero airflow. It was like the very last minute,
I can put all my stuff on and let's do that. Yeah, that was that was the scariest moment of you know, learning some things the hard way. But once we got that figured out, got speed and good control and figured out you know, what a good speed to go through or the bare minimum speed you can go through these and just figuring out all the details. Yeah, it went went really smooth.
What would five year old VICKI say if she saw however old you were at that point if she if you told her, hey, in X number of years, you're going to have a chance to become a world record holder by busting through thirteen wall wooden walls of fire.
What would five year old Vicky say? Yeah, I don't think I'd believe myself. We were never a family, and even back then, there wasn't like a I want to be like her when I grew up or anything like that. There were no role models to be looked at. So I was just doing what you know, all the boys I was riding with was doing and going through the motions of the sport, not as you know, a female.
We were just going through the motions and you know, doing the best we could and always trying to better ourselves. And then you know, it got to a point where our you know, these opportunities start presenting themselves. And that was kind of one of those things where I was just so busy putting my head down and working, and by the time I got to a place of making money and calling this a job, I was able to kind of pick my head up, smell the roses and
realize how far I'd come. But yeah, I just always kind of never even paid attention to it and just put my head down at work.
So when people call you a trailblazer, how does that feel for you?
Kind of surreal because I'm just so used to just being in my own little bubble with all my friends, and that's been you know, dorks and not even thinking about what we're doing and someone almost crashes and they almost die and we laugh it off, and we're just in our own little bubble to where we're just so desensitized. So when someone new comes in and they're like, oh my gosh, this is crazy, really what we do this every day, you know, and we're so desensitized to it.
But you know, at the same day, you know, Taka, for example, he'll do his whole X game from in practice on a Tuesday, and you know, it still blows me away, but at the same time, like a ride with them every day. So I see this every day, and I don't know, I still try and lift him up because it's gnarally what he does and what all of them do and what we all try and do is just we're just so tucked into our own little bubble.
We have no idea what else is, you know, what people think about from the outside looking until we go to these events or go to shows and some places like I remember we went to an f one and they were just mind blown that. They were like, you're going to jump from there to there? Yep, And I was like, yeah, I gotta come see this. They didn't even care that we were doing tricks. It was just the fact that we were going to jump a bike
from there to there, and they were mind blown. So it is cool to kind of be able to see it from an outsider's perspective and gives us a little bit of like a breath of fresh air yea, so to speak, little in your steps. Yeah that's right, Yeah, I am doing something pretty cool. Yeah, especially I mean your around all guys, they just poke it you NonStop, so you do whatever you can to outdo them. So so it's just never ending of never good enough, especially
with all of our mentalities there. So it is nice to have a little power on the back from the fans.
Have you had a moment where you mentioned that you know, you didn't you didn't follow the path of being a woman in the sport because there wasn't a path for women in your sport. Have you had moments yet because
if they haven't happened yet. I'm sure they're coming, But have you had moments yet where you've had the next generation of female motocross riders or a moment in a show where a girl looked at you and was like, oh, like you had that moment of realizing that you are someone's If you can see it, you can be it.
Yeah. I think it's happening more and more, and I think that's the cool part about being where I'm at and seeing the next generation come through, because it was so scarce before and now it's almost very common. So that even just that change of growing up of not having any females to ride with and now I see,
you know, a group of them going riding. So it's just it's cool to see that it's growing and just see even women, no matter what age they are of like well, yeah, no, she's doing I want to try it. And even that's where I kind of try to create this event called Over and Out to just bring women's riders together no matter what the age, and just give them environment to just ride and have fun and meet people that are like minded. So it's just cool to see on no matter what level, we have so many
more women getting into the sport. And I'm not gonna sit here and be like, oh, yeah, it's because of me, But I don't know. I just I just just doing what I do and if people love it then then they want to try it. Then you know my job is, My job is complete.
Tell me more about your event. It's called over and Out.
Yeah, we try and do it once a year. My schedule is a little busy, and I do have a lot of young kids that are like, oh, could you train my kid? And you know a lot of parents asking that, and I always say no because my schedule is so crazy and they deserve the consistency and I
just can't give them that. So I just try and create an event to where I can give them an experience and spend time with them and go ride with them and you know, coach whoever wants to be coached, and just give them more access to me instead of just watching someone on a screen. So I think that's the most important part of our world now with social media, is that yes, you can see us through a screen, but I want to experience things with these fans too.
Yeah. I love that. What has been a moment either at over and out or at a show where you felt like, oh, like I've inspired somebody based on what they've shared with you.
I think it's just a lot of little moments. I have a few amateur kids that I help out, and I don't pick the ones I help out for the reason of they're fast or you know whatever. I don't do it dictated based on speed or skill. I kind of just do it dictated on passion and how the family is of you know, if they're raising good kids and they support their kids in the right way of not just we have a lot of Moto parents, so just that'll scream at their kids until they do what
the parent wants them to do. And you know, I just found a few family that are just amazing families, and their kids have the passion. You know, they may not have the highest level of winning everything, but they just have such a beautiful passion for the sport and
their work ethic is right there with it. So I just love helping those kind of kids and just seeing the influence I have just by me existing is such a surreal experience, Like just down to the bare minimum of you wear your hat backwards, they'll wear their hat backwards. You eat this, they'll eat that. You drink this, they'll
drink that. So it just it inspired me in such a way of just like, well, I like I have to watch what I'm doing, and it created like a reverse inspiration of me of like I want to be the best version of me because they're watching. I love that.
That's so cool. Well, it's been a joy to watch you. I cannot wait to watch you at X Games. We're going to transition to our next segment here you mentioned you know they drink what you drink. This segment is called something to Sip On. It is brought to you by the sports Bra, which is the women's sports bar in Portland, Oregon. So I want to know what do you say zipping on? What's your favorite cocktail, mocktail beverage after a ride?
What's your go to? Oh man, if we're doing a you know, a long day, stressful day. It's gonna be a little cliche because it is a sponsor of the event, but it's also a personal sponsor. But we bonded together first and foremost because I like the product, which is eight O five beer. Yeah, and I was I was always going to a track up in the eight O five and that's kind of how I first met them and fell in love with the beer, and it was just only in the zip code of eight o five.
So it's a Norcol based thing. And now it's expanded nationwide and now it's the beer of choice for X Games, which is really cool for them. But yeah, nothing tastes better after ice cold Ato five after a long day. I love the serves.
It's it's big in the surf world too, and that is my favorite.
Yeah, it's it's hard to beat the Servesa. I know, you know, the og is nice, but man, just something about a little bit.
Of line in there about it, especially because we're like we're probably outside, we're probably like sweaty from either surfing or moto or whatever. So there's just something like refreshing.
Yeah. I mean, there's so many fire shot Walker brands that expand out and they send me a little bit of everything to try, but I just always go back to that survey.
I always go back. I love it all. Right. Next up, we have our powered Up segments.
So these are three things that.
Get you powered up to be the best you can be in motocross, and so they're a little off the cuff, so they're with me.
It's a little fun.
Okay. So the first one is what is the music that you listen to?
Music? I bounce around a lot. I don't think I have like a set favorite. I'll go from led Zeppelndo, Juice World to literally you name it, I'll listen to it. So I don't really have music of choice. And we do so many shows to where we have I kind of call it like a light switch of like time to ride and like flip that switch. We have so many shows per day, usually at events, that I don't really need that stuff to get prepared. It's just like oh time, yeah, So I don't really need a big,
big setting of hype for myself. We've just learned to just adjust of when I reached out of time year up and go yeah yeah.
Do you have a mantra or a saying or something that like is a go to phrase for you of either when you're about to drop in or you know, oh you just fell and you have to get back up? Like what is the go to vicki ism?
I don't really have one per se, but usually it's just I don't really give myself an option of like thinking through things, I just like, nope, you gotta do it,
like there's no option to just go do it. But the biggest saying that it's always stuck with me since like my early racing days was Rome wasn't built in a day, and that one was always one to stick with me because there's so many endless days of just I don't feel good, but I'm gonna go anyways, I feel great, I'm gonna go today, and then the next day you don't feel like good stuff to go, And just implementing consistency is the biggest imports in my life,
especially when our schedules are so catty wall office sometimes of like oh you're going here tomorrow and then you have home for two days, so trying to create a schedule, And that's the biggest consistency for me is just putting in the work, no matter how much it is, you know. So I think that's something that has always stuck with me. And a trainer taught me every single day and had to tell me and constantly remind me because I wanted
I was. I wanted to result immediately as every kid does, so that one's always stuck with me.
I imagine that there's a million things on your bike that you have to check before you do a run or before you do an event or a show. What is the one thing that you personally are like, I need to get my eyes on this and make sure that this element of the bike is tweaked or set to perfection, gas fair.
Enough, GUS is very important, so usually check that after that kind of just like my lever positioning and like just the field where the bars and controls are, and that usually dictates a very high level of comfort for me. So as long as that set where I want it, that's usually my.
Go to And do you do that by getting on the bike and like physically feeling it before I run?
Yep, Especially now with my wrists, I'm kind of a little more picky because I can't really operate the clutch the best anymore. So just having everything right where it needs to be so I can do what I have to do and the best I can do it. So that's probably the biggest thing that we have to just make sure on all my bikes because I have so many bikes that are at different locations for all shows. So we literally measure try and like do everything exactly
the same as we can. I mechanic's actually really good at that, so when he builds them, he's pretty spot on.
So this may be a dumb question, but you're saying you have bikes at every location kind of made me think of people who are very into equestrian and perspect writing. Do you ever name your bicycles?
I used to back, Okay, I don't anymore. I think this is gonna I'm spoiled now because I have so many, So I think once I got how many bikes, I stop naming them. Yeah, well I was poor. I just had one and that was my freaking life partner.
That's what you call it, your life partner.
I don't remember what I used to call them, but yeah, yeah, I used to name them back. Yeah, I don't blame you.
I feel like even like I have surfboards, and I feel like even with that I started, they like have a personality of their own for sure. Like every board has a little bit.
We buy all we get all the same parts, both of them on all the same win. They're all just a hair difference, just a little bit. We have a little bit of my Yeah, I always have my favorites, for sure.
Nice, I love that and the very last question. So obviously this is a powerful podcast. We're all about highlighting the power of women and especially women in Olympic extreme and action sports. So, Vicky, what does powerful mean to you?
Powerful for me has kind of always been just mentality. I know that's a lot of what we talked about, but it is the most important part. You can have all the muscles in the world, but if you're scared to use on what's the point. So for me, it's just creating that mental streak that comes with it. I mean, like I said, whether you're in a sport or you're just handling life, that's the mentality part of how you view things is the most important thing you can you can do.
Yeah, I love that and it's a mentality that is so sick to see how you've developed and.
Then in action on the course. Cannot wait to watch it. Thank you, Apprecire. I'm looking forward to it.
It's gonna be fun. Thank you so much for joining us on the Powerful Podcast. We will be back next week. This is a reminder to check us out every Tuesday everywhere you get your podcasts. And if you really enjoy this and don't want to miss an episode be sure to hit that subscribe button