SEASON 1: EPISODE 32 | Airdate: 7/8/2022
One-on-one interview with professional BMX racer Connor Fields.
Fields suffered a traumatic brain injury when he crashed in the final race of the semifinals of the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. Now, after months of recovery, he is riding again and using the hard-fought lessons he learned to teach others about endurance.
Fields said he has fully recovered physically from the accident that nearly took his life, but it is difficult to know if his brain has fully recovered because, he noted, no one takes stock of their cognitive abilities before they have a brain injury. He said he can do all the things he did before and family and friends tell him he is acting normal, but there is no way to know 100 percent that his brain has recovered.
Fields said his frontal lob was the most injured in the crash and that is where a person's ability to filter thoughts and words is located. He said he struggled to not say whatever was on his mind after the accident. He also had to relearn much of his cognitive and language skills.
But, as he started to get better his personality started to shine through, and he started to work on his recovery the same way he worked on his racing career. Fields said almost every day for six months he dedicated himself to improving physically and mentally.
One of the very first things he did when he was cleared by the doctors was to get back on his bike. He said he didn't want his years of riding to be defined by one accident.
