Athlete Recovery Fund Focuses on Helping Injured Athletes

Action sports injuries can be catastrophic, involving trauma to brains and spinal cords. The big problem is, insurance companies consider these athletes too much of a risk, so they won’t cover them. When disaster happens, the biggest emergency is money.

Enter Aaron Cooke, who started the Athlete Recovery Fund. The non-profit takes donations to help injured professional BMX and freestyle motocross riders and skateboarders.

BMX rider Aaron started the organization after his good friend and fellow pro, Stephen Murray, was injured in last summer’s AST Dew Tour. “He got hurt on Friday, and on Monday, I was trying to find out how to help him raise money and save him some troubles that were definitely to come,” Cooke said.

Though Murray was lucky enough to have insurance, it didn’t cover nearly enough of his medical expenses. That made Cook realize that Stephen was not the only action athlete who would need financial help.

“We need to have money ready for an injury that happens in our sports, rather than the panic of trying to raise money after the fact,” Cooke said.

ARF was able to pay for an air ambulance for recently brain-injured BMX rider Mike Aitken, to fly him home to Salt Lake City from Pennsylvania. It cost $21,900. Aitken has no insurance. He is the fifth athlete ARF has assisted. In July, ARF was able to pay for the family of injured freestyle motocross rider Greg Hartman to fly to his side when he was injured in Cleveland during the Dew Tour’s Right Guard Open.

ARF funds come from thousands of donations of all sizes, made from all over the world. Cooke takes no salary, so nearly all the money goes to injured pro athletes. They don’t even have to be seriously injured.

“Our help is judged on financial need, not the level of injury. for someone who doesn’t have coverage, even $500 may be way out of their budget. In that case, we’re here to help,” Cooke says.

ARF is now trying to help action athletes be considered more insurable. Cooke is busy working with insurance companies and agents to have them be more willing to cover action professionals.

He also says that ARF is supplemental, it’s not meant to replace insurance. Care for an injury like Mike Aitken’s or Stephen Murray’s can cost more than six million dollars, and with today’s economy, raising funds is hard.

As for insurance companies, Cooke says their reluctance is based on fear. “What these athletes do is so amazing that it looks like there’s a huge risk involved. But it’s very rare that there’s a catastrophic injury to an action athlete.”

To support the ARF, visit AthleteRecoveryFund.com.

- by Wina Sturgeon
AdventureSportsWeekly.com