Roczen: “I Am Done Talking About My Injury”
Jason Weigandt

Blogandt

Roczen: “I Am Done Talking About My Injury”

Ken Roczen is the rare athlete who sees the big picture. He recognizes his arm injury isn’t just something that caused massive pain and required massive rehab for himself, but it’s also something that creates a great story for everyone else. In fact, when I asked Kenny back in March why he was so willing to share the gruesome details on social media, and if that should scare people, he said, “But they haven’t seen the comeback yet.”

And all Roczen has talked about lately is the comeback. During the off-season he talked about it in a magazine feature with us (and a separate one with Transworld Motocross). He talked about it again at Honda’s team media intro in December. He talked about it through a relentless series of questions at the Anaheim 1 press conference. In the ultimate sign that he’s willing to tackle this subject head-on, he even wore the same style of gear at Anaheim 2 this year that he crashed in at Anaheim 2 last year. 

Yes, Kenny has not hidden from this at all. Now, though, it’s time to move on.

I was in-studio for the PulpMX Show on Monday, and we had Roczen on as a guest. He explained it like this:

“I had this conversation with Steve [Astephen], my agent,” Roczen said. “I am done talking about my injury. I am done-done, you know what I mean? I don’t mind talking about it once, I don’t mind talking about it 15 times, but now there’s a time where I have to respectfully decline to answer that question, because I am sick of it and I am over it. Anaheim 2 is done, that was the race and that was the limit.”

Roczen might be the most mentally tough racer out there, and through the entire rehab process he never wavered in his belief that he could recover and return to the front. From the looks of things, he probably will return to the center of the podium before long, too—he led half of his second race back in Houston. Kenny is making this comeback work, but even he couldn’t fight off the mental side of his injury completely. He admitted his riding at Anaheim 2 might have suffered because the anniversary of the crash was in the back of his mind. Now that he’s gotten past the one-year mark, he’s making a clean break (pardon the pun) and asking to have the footage of the crash removed from his supercross opening ceremonies video.

“Here’s the thing, you can say it doesn’t affect you, and maybe it does not, but it definitely doesn’t give you any benefit!” Roczen said with a laugh. “So, I’m taking that off [of the opening ceremonies video]. I get it, it’s a story and I agree, but at some point, everybody knows about it by now and I just want to move on and focus on the championship. I try to just forget about everything. I’m over it.”

Roczen the Racer, instead of Roczen the Arm Injury, is making for a good story anyway.

He's started multiple seasons of Monster Energy Supercross on fire, winning the season opener in three of his first four tries (on three different bike brands, even). This year his results have been more subdued: fourth at round one, second at round two, and then that sub-par ninth at Anaheim 2, where Roczen admitted he rode horribly. Still, he's crashed out of the 450SX points lead far too many times before. This time he's playing the long game, content to let his arm injury, and even his results, fade into the background a bit while he finds that last piece of comfort he needs to get back to winning races. This weekend in Glendale will be a pivotal one—but at least there he'll be talking only about the race, and not his arm.