Jolene Van Vugt

Content sourced from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Jolene Van Vugt is a Canadian motocross rider. She became the first woman to win the Canadian Motocross National Championship and the first woman to backflip a full-sized dirt bike. She has set several Guinness World Records and appears in many motocross and stunt videos. She also starred on Nitro Circus.

She was born on September 17, 1980, in London, Ontario, to Dutch immigrant parents Bill and Tina Van Vugt. She is the youngest of three children. Her father loved motocross and inspired her, while her mother hoped she would become a skater or ballerina. At age 11, she convinced her dad to buy her a dirt bike. When she was 14, she was told to either take motocross seriously or quit. She chose motocross and quickly rose to the top of Canada’s women’s motocross. She won Ontario Provincial Championships, finished ninth in the Women’s Motocross Association, and earned lifetime number 63. She also competed in events like Loretta Lynn’s Amateur National and the TransCan Canadian Amateur Grand National Championship.

From 2006, Van Vugt appeared on Nitro Circus, a TV show that started on Fuel TV and later moved to MTV. In 2012, she performed Catwoman’s driving stunts in The Dark Knight Rises. In September 2015, she suffered a serious injury attempting a ramp jump with a slingshot, requiring reconstructive surgeries and months of recovery.