In February the worldwide FMX scene was shocked after the tragically death of Jeremy Lusk. He succumbed to his injuries, which he got from a hard crash at the X Knights San Jose/Costa Rica. The probably best FMX athlete last year was nominated for the FMX Awards in the two categories “Best International FMX Rider” and “Best Trick Innovation”. In both sections the users honored his incredible performance in 2008 and his lifetime achievement.

With Brody Wilson another American has been voted for the Best Rookie of the Year. Brice Izzo is Europe’s Rookies of the year. Both riders had their international breakthrough last year at the NIGHT of the JUMPs contest. This series was the career source of another FMX Awards winner 2008: Mat Rebeaud, who reached Best European FMX Rider. Again the users choice for Best German FMX Rider went to Busty Wolter. Gemany’ Rookie of the Year is Sebastian Dunkel.

The users choice for the best FMX Event/Series felt to the Red Bull X-Fighters. Best FMX Bike 2008 is Yamaha YZ 250 and finally RobbieMaddison.com has been voted for the Best FMX Riders Website.

The FMX Awards were established in 2006 by Berlinièros Sports Agency to honor the world's best Freestyle Motocross riders. Annually it awards FMX competitors who have been outstanding during the previous year.

There was a two-part voting process to find the winners: Firstly, a Selection Panel of FMX experts and leading FMX editors, writers and broadcasters from several countries voted to create a shortlist of max. six nominations in each category.

2008 the expert group consisted of Chris Foreman (Global Action Sports, Crusty Demons Tour), Dan Bonnermann (X-Rider), Jason Moriarty (Headjudge IFMXF, Pro Rider), Jimmy Verburgh (FMX4Ever), Jose Gaspar (fmxnews.com.br/Brazil), Jörg Hotzel (IFMXF - NIGHT of the JUMPs), Oliver Franke (Berlinièros Sports Agency), Olivia Schoch (Freestyle.ch), Marek Rejman (GSMA, Gladiator Series), Marko Manthey (IFMXF - NIGHT of the JUMPs), Ryan Leba (FMX-Blog-ESPN), Sascha Jurek (funsporting.com), Simon Makker (Freerider Mag Australia), Sven Schreiber (Hammer Events) and Tobias Hannig (forty8.de/Germany).

In the second voting process every user of the fmxawards.com-Website had the chance to vote for his/her favorites. Here are the winners in the 10 categories:

Category Winner

Best International FMX Rider Jeremy Lusk (USA)
Best European FMX Rider Mat Rebeaud (SUI)
Best German FMX Rider Busty Wolter (GER)
Best International FMX Rookie Brody Wilson (USA)
Best European FMX Rookie Brice Izzo (FRA)
Best German FMX Rookie Sebastian Dunkel (GER)
Best FMX Series / Event Red Bull X-Fighters
Best FMX Bike Yamaha
Best Trick Innovation Double Hart Flip / Jeremy Lusk (USA)
Best FMX Riders Website RobbieMaddison.com

 FMX Awards 2008 - The Results

Best International FMX Rider
Jeremy Lusk (USA) 59,7%     
Robbie Maddison (AUS) 14%     
Mat Rebeaud (SUI) 10%     
Remi Bizouard (FRA) 8,1%     
Adam Jones (USA) 8,1%     

Best European FMX Rider
Mat Rebeaud (SUI) 33.3%     
André Villa (NOR) 26.9%     
Remi Bizouard (FRA) 17%     
Thomas Pages (FRA) 8,8%     
Danni Torres (ESP) 8,2%     
Libor Podmol (CZE) 5,8%     

Best German FMX Rider
Busty Wolter 54,2%     
Fabian Bauersachs 14,8%     
Lukas Weis 12,7%     
Freddy Peters 9,9%     
Hannes Ackermann 8.5%
 
Best International FMX Rookie
Brody Wilson (USA) 23,4%     
Levi Sherwood (AUS) 22,7%     
Lance Coury (USA) 21,2%     
Destin Cantrell (USA) 20,8%     
Jack Rowe (USA) 7,4%     
Petr Pilat (CZE) 4,5%     

Best European FMX Rookie
Brice Izzo (FRA) 36,3%     
Petr Pilat (CZE) 25%     
Jose Miralles (ESP) 16,1%     
Massimo Bianconcini (ITA) 9,7%     
Gilles Dejong (BEL) 8,9%     
Vivan Gantner (SUI) 4%     

Best German FMX Rookie
Sebastian Dunkel 22,6%     
Kai Haase 19,1%     
Stefan Bengs 16,5%     
Tim Kerling 16,5%     
Robert Naumann 15,7%     
Dennis Garhammer 9,6%     

Best FMX Series/Event
X-Fighters 37,6%     
X Games 34,4%     
Crusty Demons 11,1%     
NIGHT of the JUMPs /
FIM Freestyle MX World Champ. 10,6%     
AST Dew Tour 6,3%  
   
Best FMX Bike
Yamaha 36,7%     
Honda 28,2%     
Suzuki 15,3%     
KTM 10,2%     
Kawasaki 9,6%     

Best Trick Innovation
Double Hart Flip / Jeremy Lusk 35,5%     
Electric Doom / Kyle Loza 33%     
540 Flair / Fredrik Johansson 19,8%     
Front Flip / Jim De Champ 6,1%     
Double Grab Flip / Thomas Pages 5,6%     

Best FMX Rider’s Website
RobbieMaddison.com 35,1%     
AndreVilla.com 26,5%     
AdamJonesFMX.com 25,2%     
RemiBizouard.com 9,2%     
Freddy-FMX.com 4%     

More information: www.FMXawards.com