Levi LaVallee Injured, New Year Record Jump Attempt Cancelled

Seven-time Winter X Games medalist and champion snowcross racer Levi LaVallee was to attempt a world record snowmobile distance jump at this year’s Red Bull: New Year. No Limits. event. Unfortunately, LaVallee was injured while practicing for the jump which made the organizers cancel the event.

Immediately after his injury, LaVallee was transported to a local hospital where he is in stable condition and is expected to make a full recovery.

“The safety of Red Bull’s world-class athletes is paramount, and all precautions were taken during LaVallee’s testing sessions to ensure he could perform in the safest-possible setting,” a statement from Red Bull reads.

During testing, the 28-year-old athlete has jumped 361 feet (110m), eclipsing the existing record by 60 feet (18m). This jump will reportedly be submitted for world record certification.

LaVallee has been a snocross racer for more than 15 years, he took up freestyle in 2007 and, at the Winter X Games 12 in 2008, he won the gold medal in the Freestyle and Speed & Style events and was named Athlete of the Games.

In 2009, he won the Pro Stock Snocross championship and came this close to landing the first-ever snowmobile double backflip at Winter X 13. Earlier this year, at Winter X 14, he took gold in the newly-created Snowmobile Knock Out event, his seventh Winter X Games medal.

LaVallee was to be the fourth athlete to star in Red Bull’s annual New Year’s Eve celebration on ESPN. Robbie Maddison was first to participate in 2007 by jumping his motorcycle 322 feet (98m) over a football field in Las Vegas and followed it up in 2008 by jumping onto – and off – of the 96-foot-tall (29m) Arc De Triomphe at Paris Las Vegas.

Also in 2008, Rhys Millen backflipped an off-road truck and just missed sticking the landing. As said, last year Travis Pastrana jumped his rally car 269 feet (82m) over water, landing on a barge in Long Beach’s Rainbow Harbor.