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6 things you might not know about Any One of Us
Find out more about the story of Paul Basagoitia, star of Red Bull and HBO's Emmy Award-winning film Any One of Us...
Paul Basagoitia’s 11-year-career as a mountain bike rider came to an abrupt end at the Red Bull Rampage event in October 2015 when he crashed, and burst fractured his T12 vertebrae.
He was instantly paralysed from the waist down, and told by doctors that he may well be in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. His remarkable recovery from that injury is documented in heartbreaking-yet-uplifting fashion in Red Bull and HBO’s Any One Of Us. The film shines a light on what Paul and other people living with a Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) go through every day.
Here are six things that make Bas's story so compelling...
1. Paul was a mountain biking legend
Paul Basagoitia racing in 2009
© John Gibson/Red Bull Content Pool
As shown in Any One of Us, 18-year-old Paul burst onto the scene at the first-ever Crankworx in 2004, in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada. Bas was an unknown BMXer, and didn't even have a hardtail bike of his own to ride. Instead, he borrowed his pro-rider pal Cam Fink’s. Bas stole the show as, to finish his run, he pulled a backflip onto the final obstacle and a tail-flip off of it. It was enough to put him in first place, ahead of biking big boys Wade Simmons, Kyle Strait and Cedric Gracia. A year later he defended his title, and became the stuff of legend.
I couldn’t move my feet or my legs, and that’s when I knew I was in big trouble
2. He'd brushed off bigger crashes in the past
5 min
Paul Basagoitia's double backflip
Paul Basagoitia has made freeride history by performing the first double backflip in natural terrain
“I’ve taken many harder slams in my career and walked away,” Basagoitia told The Red Bulletin in October 2019. “But for some reason, I landed exactly on the 12th vertebra, [with] enough impact to shatter it into my spinal cord. I couldn’t move my feet or my legs, and that’s when I knew I was in big trouble.”
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3. The documentary The Crash Reel was the film's inspiration
In 2009, pro snowboarder Kevin Pearce attempted a cab double cork during a half pipe training run, crashed badly, and hit his head. He suffered a traumatic brain injury, his recovery from which is documented in the 2013 film Crash Reel.
After Paul’s life-changing crash, Red Bull athlete manager Aaron Lutze visited him at home in Reno, Nevada, and they watched the documentary together. When it ended, Paul said: “I want to make something like this but for spinal cord injuries.”
Six years later, in 2019, Any One of Us was released, winning the Sports Emmy Award for Outstanding Editing that same year.
4. The film has made Paul an inspirational figure
In fact, there are roughly 250,000 a year worldwide. In Any One of Us, we hear from 17 people other than Paul who have suffered a SCI. These voices are the soul of the film, and they help people not living with one understand how fundamentally and irreversibly life-changing they are. Thanks to the film, Paul is now an inspirational figure in the SCI community.
As long as [the film] helps somebody with this injury and we can bring some funding into finding a cure… that’s a home run for me
5. All proceeds from Any One of Us go to the Wings For Life foundation
1 h 21 min
6 years of Wings for Life World Run
Get an up-close look at the heart and soul of the past six years of Wings for Life World Run.
Wings For Life is a not-for-profit SCI Research Foundation, which has the motto: spinal cord injury must become curable. It was co-founded by Red Bull founder Dietrich Mateschitz and two-time motocross champion Heinz Kinigadner whose own son, Hans, had an accident in 2003 that left him tetraplegic and in a wheelchair.
The foundation's annual fundraiser, the Wings for Life World Run, has a unique concept where runners are caught by the finish line.
Its purpose is to provide funding for research into finding a cure for SCI. When The Red Bulletin asked Paul in 2019 about Any One of Us potentially winning an Oscar, he said: “As long as it helps somebody with this injury and we can bring some funding into finding a cure… that’s a home run for me.”
6. E-bikes have got Paul back on two wheels – and landing jumps again
As Paul’s recovery progressed he started to dream, and as of summer 2019 he’s been riding e-bikes. “The first time placing my feet on the pedals was the most awkward thing ever, I felt like I was just floating on the bike because I couldn’t feel the pedals,” he told Bicycling Magazine in August 2019. But, he added, discovering e-bikes, “is the best thing that’s ever happened to me”.
As a kid, BMX-ing and mountain biking had been a way of escaping a difficult childhood, and then a provided a living. Now, e-bikes are helping him learn how to live again. He can ride trails around his home in Reno, he can ride with friends again, and he can ride just to enjoy riding again. Every now and then, he even lands a jump. “I’m not ever going to be back at the level I was,” he told Teton Gravity in 2019. “But I’ve found a way to ride with my buds, still hit the little jumps… being on a bike just makes me the happiest.”
Any One of Us is available via BBC iPlayer until August 2021.
Interested in similar tales of adversity and triumph? Check out Red Bull TV's latest release Go Fast Pull Up where BMX legend Jimmy levan documents the highs and lows of life as a BMX pro.
