text: In an ESPN exclusive, Alyssa Roenigk reveals that Dave Mirra's brain was found to have CTE. The finding is the first for an action sports athlete. Today, Roenigk and Kevin Robinson join Outside The Lines to discuss Dave Mirra's life and legacy. (6:54) 
   
   BMX icon Dave Mirra, who died in February, suffered from the type of chronic brain damage that has shown up in the brains of dozens of football players, a University of Toronto neuropathologist has concluded. Multiple neuropathologists confirmed the diagnosis. 
   
   Mirra is the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a neurodegenerative disease that can lead to dementia, memory loss and depression. He died on Feb. 4 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. 
   
   The tau protein deposits found in Mirra's brain were indistinguishable from the kind that have been found in the brains of former football and hockey players with CTE, Dr. Lili-Naz Hazrati, the Toronto neuropathologist, told ESPN The Magazine. 
   
   Editor's Picks Wife of Dave Mirra, first action sports athlete with CTE, discusses his last weeks and legacy BMX pioneer Dave Mirra is the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with CTE. In an exclusive interview, his wife, Lauren Mirra, speaks about his diagnosis, his last weeks and his legacy. 
   
   "I couldn't tell the difference," she said. "The trauma itself defines the disease, not how you got the trauma." 
   
   The trademark tau protein deposits were found in the frontal and temporal lobes of Mirra's brain. 
   
   "It's assumed it is related to multiple concussions that happened years before," she said. 
   
   Mirra, who was 41, suffered a fractured skull when a car hit him at age 19, and he dabbled in boxing after his retirement from BMX. But he also endured countless concussions during his BMX career, beginning at a young age. 
   
   A legend in freestyle BMX, Mirra was the face of his sport to the mainstream. Until 2013, he owned the record for the most X Games medals in history with 24. He also had a successful video game series and hosted a show on MTV. After retiring from competitive BMX in 2011, Mirra competed in the sports of rallycross and triathlon. 
   
   After his death, Mirra's family decided to have his brain studied for CTE. At the request of the Mirra family, Hazrati sent images of her prepared slides, without background information or Mirra's name attached, to additional U.S. and Canadian neuropathologists for their opinions. Each confirmed Hazrati's diagnosis of CTE. 
   
   "It validates what we have been thinking about brain injuries in boxers and football players," Hazrati said. "The key is brain injury. Regardless of how you get it, through BMX or hockey, you are at risk for this." 
   
   CTE is a progressive disease associated with repeated head trauma. Although long known to occur in boxers, it was not discovered in football players and other athletes until 2002. 
   
   Mirra's widow, Lauren, received the diagnosis about her late husband in March. In an exclusive interview with ESPN The Magazine for its June 6 issue, she spoke about Mirra's diagnosis and legacy, and she detailed personality changes in his final year. 
   
   "I started to notice changes in his mood. And then it quickly started to get worse," Lauren said. "He wasn't able to be present in any situation or conversation, so it was hard to be in a relationship with him to any degree. He was lost. I looked straight through him on a few occasions. And I was like, 'Where are you? Where are you? What is wrong?' 
   
   "This is the beginning of bringing awareness. It would be amazing if this is something we can detect in life one day. If we can detect it, prevent it, stop it, let's do all of the above." 
   
   CTE can be diagnosed only after death, though many researchers are working on tests to diagnose it in the living. 
   
   Mirra will be inducted into the National BMX Hall of Fame in Chula Vista, California, on June 11. He will also be honored June 4 during this year's X Games in Austin, Texas, with a new event named for him, the Dave Mirra BMX Park Best Trick competition. The winner will be awarded the Mirra Golden Pedal and prize money. 
   
   ESPN owns and produces the X Games, which had no comment on Mirra's diagnosis. ||||| Skip Ad Ad Loading... x Embed x Share BMX legend Dave Mirra suffered from CTE before his death in February, multiple neuropathologists have confirmed, according to ESPN. Time_Sports 
   
   Former BMX rider Dave Mirra in June of 2015. (Photo: Ed Reinke, AP) 
   
   The brain of BMX star Dave Mirra showed signs of the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a Toronto-based neuropathologist confirmed to USA TODAY Sports on Tuesday. 
   
   Mirra died at age 41 from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in February 
   
   and the family sought out the University of Toronto and the Canadian Concussion Centre. University of Toronto neuropathologist Lili-Naz Hazrati oversaw the examination of Mirra’s brain. 
   
   Mirra is believed to be the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with CTE, a progressive disease linked to repeated head impacts that can lead to depression and the lack of impulse control. Earlier Tuesday, another group of researchers announced former All-Pro defensive end Bubba Smith was the 90th former NFL player diagnosed with CTE. 
   
   Hazrati said Mirra’s brain had the telltale signs of CTE and research remains underway on what stage the disease was in at the time of his suicide. 
   
   “We still need to do more work to understand the staging,” Hazrati told USA TODAY Sports. 
   
   ESPN was the first to report Mirra’s CTE diagnosis. The family said in a statement “leading neuropathologists from the U.S. and abroad unanimously confirmed the diagnosis of CTE.” 
   
   “We would like to thank our family, friends and the overwhelming number of Dave’s fans who have supported us during this difficult time,” Mirra’s wife, Lauren, said in a statement. “We ask for your continued support in honoring Dave’s legacy and for your patience as we plan to create a platform for CTE awareness and research.” 
   
   Greenville, N.C., mayor Allen Thomas, who was also a friend of Mirra's, mentioned at a news conference in February that Mirra — like many action sports stars — absorbed several big hits in his career. He suggested that that Mirra could have suffered from CTE. 
   
   “This is young man that had a pretty had a pretty rugged sports career and took a lot of injuries in his career," Thomas said. "You have to give pause, think and wonder as we hear about brain trauma in football and other sports, whether that played a factor." ||||| BMX rider Dave Mirra made a name for himself with his high-flying tricks and multiple recoveries after big crashes. He was found dead at the age of 41 on Feb. 4. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post) 
   
   In a decade-old video, BMX star Dave Mirra spoke of riding a bike in terms usually reserved for the priesthood. BMX wasn’t just a trend, he said, but a vocation — and a life sentence. 
   
   “I was born in 1974 in a small town in upstate New York — a time when bicycle motocross was just about to blow up the scene,” he said. “By the mid-’80s, freestyle BMX was the coolest thing I’d ever seen. It was a movement, and I was part of it. Just about every kid across America was riding BMX. There was at a time in high school when most kids traded their bikes for a car. I had to make a choice: Follow them or follow my heart. … I just kept on riding. As far as I was concerned, I was sentenced to life.” 
   
   Now that Mirra — found dead Thursday of a gunshot wound in his truck at his home in Greenville, N.C. — has apparently killed himself, it’s easy to forget the great dangers he faced everyday in pursuit of his calling. BMX bikers are in peril every time they compete or practice, defying gravity as casually as the rest of us change toner in the copier. 
   
   [BMX icon Dave Mirra dead at 41 of apparent suicide] 
   
   Or, sometimes, not: 
   
   And, in his career, Mirra endured — and triumphed over — at least two terrible accidents that devastated his body and left him wondering whether he would ever compete again. 
   
   In the first, he was just a pedestrian. In 1993, at age 19, Mirra — who had just gotten out of high school and gone pro — was leaving a club in Syracuse when a drunk driver plowed into him, fracturing his skull and dislocating his shoulder. 
   
   “A car going 45 hurts a lot more than you falling from 15 feet and hitting the ground,” he later said. “But it all hurts.” 
   
   The accident left him with a blood clot in his brain. 
   
   “They said that if I was a football player, they’d never let me play again,” he said, “but I wasn’t going to let that control my destiny.” Besides, giving up riding wasn’t really an option — and there was no one to stop him. 
   
   “They couldn’t control what I did because it was an independent sport,” he said. “Maybe at first I was a little nervous, but I missed it so much.” 
   
   Mirra was riding again within a year. 
   
   “The blood clot went away real soon, and I was fine,” he said. “Basically, I just figured I’d been riding my whole life and I’m not going to stop now.” 
   
   Getting hit by a car wasn’t really that different than getting hassled by squares, he said. 
   
   “It was a setback, but something I overcame. It doesn’t even mess with me at all,” he said. “It’s no different than that teacher in sixth grade telling me I wasn’t going to go anywhere — a roadblock. In life there are obstacles you have to go through. Whatever it is, you overcome eventually. I’m fortunate not to be hurt physically so that I can move on. Back then it was a big deal, but it’s behind me.” He also once noted: There was “no brain damage that I know of.” 
   
   Although Mirra wasn’t really the type to preach, the crash that almost ended his career certainly made him a fan of designated drivers. 
   
   “I haven’t been involved in any public service announcements, but it is my stand that drunk driving is not safe, and I would urge people not to drink and drive,” he said. “It’s not worth it.” 
   
   Mirra in 2005. (Nick Laham/Getty Images) 
   
   In 2006, Mirra had another close call he later called his “worst crash ever.” 
   
   “It was the first day of BMX park practice before the Summer X Games,” he told Men’s Fitness — a publication impressed by “what extreme athletes put their bodies through” — in 2007. “I did a few practice runs and started to push it a little bit each time. The final hit was a mess. I missed the landing and came down flat. As I leaned back to suck it up, my ass hit the back tire, my bike instantly stopped, and I went straight over the bars to the ground. I basically fell 16 feet straight to my head. Just after I hit the ground, I thought for sure I broke all the ribs on the right side and my sternum was smashed. I couldn’t breathe, so a collapsed lung crossed my mind. I knew something was wrong.” 
   
   It turned out Mirra had almost destroyed his liver. 
   
   “I ended up with a Grade 4 laceration on my liver — Grade 5 is the worst you can get,” he said. “I spent two days in ICU and had to stay off my bike for close to four months. The biggest challenge is getting back to 100 percent mentally. But after four months off my bike, I was ready to take some chances again. I spent so much time preparing myself in my mind to ride that I was ready to go when the time came.” 
   
   For a guy used to pushing his body to the limits, recovery demanded patience. 
   
   “I realized there’s nothing you can do about an injury or having a bad day,” he said of the healing process. “My mind-set right now is all about having fun when I’m out riding and not putting too much pressure on myself. I’ve won enough; I’ve proved myself. Winning feels good — I’m still out there riding my best and keeping up the standard for riding, and I don’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. I’m just focusing more on enjoying myself: staying positive and doing what I do best.” 
   
   If Mirra did take his own life, something tragic led him off of this positive path. But, when remembering the obstacles he did overcome, perhaps it’s also best to remember his nickname: “Miracle Man.”
target: – Dave Mirra, the legendary BMX star who killed himself in February, had chronic traumatic encephalopathy—a disease more commonly seen in football players and boxers, ESPN reports. He's believed to be the first action sports athlete to be diagnosed with it. "The key is brain injury," says the neuropathologist who diagnosed Mirra. "Regardless of how you get it, through BMX or hockey, you are at risk for this." Mirra suffered numerous concussions throughout his BMX career. He once described a 2006 crash to the Washington Post by saying, “I basically fell 16 feet straight to my head.” “This is a young man that had a pretty rugged sports career and took a lot of injuries," USA Today quotes a friend as saying. Mirra's diagnosis of CTE was confirmed by multiple neuropathologists, though it's unclear what stage the disease was in. Scans of Mirra's brain showed the same tau protein deposits as those in the brains of former football players. CTE, which is only able to be diagnosed after death, can cause depression, dementia, and memory loss. Mirra's wife Lauren says Mirra underwent major mood and personality changes in the year before he killed himself at 41. “We ask for your continued support in honoring Dave’s legacy and for your patience as we plan to create a platform for CTE awareness and research," reads a statement from Lauren, per USA Today. Mirra, who "was the face of his sport," will be inducted into the National BMX Hall of Fame next month. (Also on Tuesday, Bubba Smith was announced as the 90th former NFL player to be diagnosed with CTE.)