While I agree that people should get on their bikes more, this is not mere "cycle sport". I bought a BMX bike at about 35, after a decade or more of "only" ridi

While I agree that people should get on their bikes more, this is not mere "cycle sport". I bought a BMX bike at about 35, after a decade or more of "only" riding mountain bikes, mostly on streets and well-maintained trails but occasionally going off-road. Within a week of getting back into doing the old freestyle tricks I used to do regularly, I took a fall and damned near broke my ass; and we're definitely not talking about tricks on the scale or level of someone like Mirra, here. It was weeks before I could sit comfortably again. I had to work lying down or standing for at least two weeks. The type and magnitude of injury one can sustain from BMX freestyle riding, particularly vert riding, is just not in the same category as the kinds of injury you'd sustain cycling in the traditional sense (short of getting hit by a car, which is also probably more likely for freestyle riders). So, yes, get on your bike (or kayak, or running shoes, or whatever) and get daily exercise. That's a great idea. But, "extreme" sports are called that for a reason, and they do subject your body to much more significant risk of injury, possibly even serious injury. There is already good science linking repeated concussions to depression and other mental illness; and it's not crazy to suggest these folks are getting more concussions than the general populace (when I was involved in these kinds of sports, I had friends who joked about how many concussions they'd had while skating or biking). I'm agreeing with everybody in this thread, I think, but the notion that "doing sports" is what Mirra was doing is sort of like saying a hurricane is "some wind", and that it's a healthy lifestyle is misleading. He was fit, obviously, but had also suffered numerous major injuries throughout his life, many of which likely still caused him pain and reduced mobility, even years after they'd healed. Concussions were almost certainly among the injuries he sustained.