From breaking his neck in August last year to being back in the competition this past spring, Lukas Skiöld’s journey to getting back on his bike and back in the air has been nothing short of extraordinary. This is his story.
Direction, DOP and edit: Peter Eriksson-Gladh
Featuring: Lukas Skiöld
Produced by: POC
[Music] What do you feel when you ride? I just feel happy and like [Music] like myself. My name is Lucas K. I’m 27 years old and I’m a professional free ride mountain biker. [Music] One day I was feeling the best I’ve ever felt on my bike. The next day I I couldn’t move my arm and I broke my neck. [Music] I found out I broke four vertebraes in my neck, fractured C7 in three places, got nerve damage, and I would be in a collar for 12 weeks. Um, so basically I got nerve damage in C5C6 that affects my arm, the spinal cord. Um, and yeah, the doctors told me that they were unsure if my arm would ever get back to normal. Um, yeah, it’s heartbreaking. I just wanted to train and overcome this and get my arm to be somewhat the same. Whenever I went to the gym, I could feel a little bit better. That just motivated me even more. [Music] Um, so today it it’s 19th of November and I just drove my dirt jumper for first time on the flat ground. I did some 180s and bunny hops manuals and it was the best day of my life. [Music] What’s the plan? Uh, so the plan for today is to just move around on my hard tail and test out my shoulder a bit. The doctors say that it’s pretty good to put it to the test and like get the the connection from the head to the to the arm to like move around again. [Music] like just being back feeling somewhat like myself. Pretty much the best feeling there is. I could really see a switch in how good my arm were before riding and then after I’ve been riding for like a month. The nerves found new ways to connect and that just motivated me even more cuz I felt that I was making progress. 360 uh 4 months. [Music] It’s been 5 and 1/2 months since I broke my neck. Now I actually going to try to do some bigger tricks, which is going to be fun. I’m a bit scared to be honest, but we’ll see how it goes. [Music] Actually [Music] insane how much this means to you when something you love so much gets taken away from you. Like how lost you feel. Crazy how good it feels going back and like getting your identity back in a sense. Ever since I crashed, my goal was to put a full slopes and run together again. And I got the chance to do it in Rodura and knew that it was a big big goal. But at the same time, it was like if not now, when? Feels pretty surreal to be back in like this environment and riding my bike like this and actually trying to push myself. But it feels so good and I’m so hyped to just be here. Uh since this has been such a big goal and like what I’ve been working towards for the last couple of months. Um, so yeah, I’m like it’s so overwhelming actually. [Music] Yep. wrestle wise and like pointwise like not good. But at the same time like I wrote a contest 7 months after breaking pretty much my whole neck and getting spinal cord injured. That’s a pretty big win itself. It is a run. I’m alive. You’re looking good out there. I’m not dead. What a comeback. You’re amazing. Proud of you. Honestly, I cannot believe he dropped into this contest. I can’t believe it. Nobody else here would have broke their neck and bent at the first [ __ ] event of the year. Nobody had like this. Nobody. looking forward. This is where I really put in the work to become the best I’ve ever been. [Music]