Vicki Golden Sends It At The 2021 Red Bull Imagination 2.0 Event

“We don’t put her in a separate category. She’s one of us.”

Dustin Wheelen

By: Dustin Wheelen

Nov 9, 2021 at 12:16pm ET

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Vicki Golden has been banging bars with the boys throughout her motocross career. Inspired by her father and brother, Golden captured the AMA Women's Amateur Champion at the age of 16. She followed up with three consecutive gold medals (2011-2013) in the Women's Moto X Racing event at the Summer X Games.

In 2013, Golden proved that she could hang with the top dogs of the sport by taking a bronze medal in the Moto X Best Whip contest behind Josh Hansen and Jeremy “Twitch” Stenberg. Two years later, in 2015, the San Diego native competed in Monster Energy AMA Supercross and became the first female to qualify for the Fast 40-night program.

After a remarkable racing career, Golden transitioned to freeriding. While she may not be competing for gold, Golden still runs at the front of the sport. As one of the select riders to receive an invitation to the Red Bull Imagination 2.0 event, number 423 remains the only female in the competition. However, most riders don’t look at it that way.

“A lot of people are always like, ‘oh, like she’s really good for a girl.’ And we’re always like, ‘no, she’s really good for like anybody.’” noted Twitch. “That’s what’s cool about her, it’s like riding with every one of my boys. We don’t put her in a separate category. She’s one of us.”

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Held at the epic Tyler Bereman-built freeriding course in Kansas, the competition judges contestants on a combination of creativity, style, technical skill, and jump height. For 2021, Bereman and Red Bull upped the ante with even more jumps and a three-section layout. From a quarter pipe to a Supercross section to a skatepark-style dirt park, the freeriding course has something to offer for every rider.

The diversity and scale tripped up Golden during the first two days leading up to the event. However, when the chips were down, the decorated rider threw down, completing an epic run and greeting an adoring fan at the finish line. Fellow freeriders may see Golden as one of the boys but she’s inspiring more young girls to get into the sport as well.