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On the trajectory of the injured athlete, there is the beginning, and usually the end.

There is the fall.

On Oct. 14, 2010, legendary dirt jumper T.J. Lavin crashed his bike at the Dew Tour in Las Vegas. He failed to return his foot to the pedal after a trick and fell face-first into dirt that is packed concrete-hard by builders. He broke his eye socket and wrist. He spent 10 days in a medically induced coma.

Followed by the rise.

Lavin, also an MTV reality TV host, is back in the spotlight, designing dirt courses for the Dew Tour, including this week in Salt Lake City at the Toyota Challenge, and championing a movement to get more riders wearing full-face helmets.

It's the recovery, the lonely stretch of interstate between the rise and fall, that usually gets neglected. The loss of function and the absence of muscle memory. Or, in Lavin's case, memory. It's how sports, when they go bad, can strip grown-ups of their adulthood.

"I just started peeing in the hallway of the hospital," Lavin said. "I can't even tell you how messed up I was. It was like having your drunkest friend ever for a month and a half."

Lavin, 34, laughs when he tells stories like those now. His spirits are lifted by the fact that he's back around the sport that first made him famous.

Eleven months ago, the last time Lavin was in the public conscious, he lay still on the dirt in Vegas, his hometown. Paramedics rushed toward him.

"That's the business," said Corey Nastazio, one of Lavin's close friends and a longtime BMX rider. "It's like bullriding."

Lavin has hardly ridden a bike in the months since his injury. In June, the former X Games champion tried riding down his street.

"I know what the bike is supposed to feel like, and it didn't feel like that," he said.

So Lavin has repurposed himself, for now, as a course designer. He sketched out a course for the Dew Tour in Portland last month, and then many of his BMX buddies helped him build it, just like they have done this week at the course across 300 West from the Triad Center.

The Portland course was technical, tight with big jumps, the way a kindergartner draws a mountain range. It left many pros thrown to the side, cursing Lavin's creation.

Lavin watched every second in Portland and felt residual pains of his crash.

"It's bittersweet," Lavin said. "It's really tough to build an awesome course and then not get to ride it."

Lavin smiles a lot and jokes around with his friends like nothing ever really went wrong. Over the years, Lavin has become more of a businessman than an athlete. He hosts "The Challenge" on MTV, is a talented musician, and is the face of a product that claims to help the body more quickly metabolize alcohol.

Although those things often came before bike riding, bike riding was always first.

"Deep down, he's heartbroken," Nastazio said. "It's because our egos are so big and our freedom to ride bikes is our livelihood. When that's taken away, it's like a kick in the [groin]."

Lavin doesn't want to see more riders fall to pieces because they were stupid. Wearing the helmets they do now, he says, is stupid. He, too, was stupid, because he was wearing a half-helmet, like everyone else, when he got injured. He wants dirt riders to start wearing full-face helmets, like motocross riders, and stop depending on skate helmets.

"They're just very convenient," he said. "It's very inconvenient when you don't know how to tie your own shoes."

Problem is, not many guys want to follow Lavin's advice.

"If it got down to a point where you couldn't ride without a full-face, I mean, I guess I'd consider it," said 16-year-old professional Brett Banasiewicz.

For now, most guys stick with the smaller helmets, citing comfort and claiming the lighter shells allow for better peripheral vision and mobility — although BMX vert riders have worn full helmets for years.

Lavin is pushing for the protection of other riders. He says he is likely done riding in competition, even if he can return to prime condition.

"God only knows why I keep on going back to the contests and trying to do this," Lavin said. "It's probably because I don't want to let go of my youth. I like being young and now that I'm not, I'm trying not to get too old."

boram@sltrib.com Twitter: @oramb —

T.J. Lavin file

Who • Pro BMX rider

Age • 34

Hometown • Las Vegas

Accomplishments • 3-time X Games gold medalist, host of MTV's "The Challenge," professional musician. —

Dew Tour Toyota Challenge schedule

Thursday

3 p.m. • BMX dirt last chance qualifier

4:45 p.m. • BMX vert last chance qualifier

6 p.m. • Skateboard street preliminary

Friday

2 p.m. • BMX dirt semifinal

4 p.m. • BMX vert semifinal

5:30 p.m. • Skateboard street semifinal

7:30 p.m. • FMX

Saturday

2:30 p.m. • Skateboard vert final

7:30 p.m. • BMX dirt final

9 p.m. • BMX dirt big air

Sept. 11

2:30 p.m. • Skateboard street final

5 p.m. • BMX vert final

Tickets • Online at smithstix.com; $15-$100