At the 2008 X Games he became the first athlete in X Games history to win 3 medals in a single day bagging awards in the Super Pipe slopestyle and big-air competitions But his rising star was suddenly eclipsed on December 31st 2009 While training for the winter Olympics Pearce attempted a difficult maneuver called the cab double cork It went terribly wrong and he smashed his head directly into the halfpipe He was airlifted to a hospital with massive brain trauma which he somehow survived that we would spend the next 6 months in the hospital I mean I had to relearn how to walk and talk and I had to learn how to swallow again and I had to learn everything from the start In he bravely returned to snowboarding but only recreationally
