It’s been said that defending a championship is much harder than winning it in the first place. Taka Higashino is evidence that this is true. After winning his first X Games gold medal in Freestyle at the 2012 X Games in Los Angeles, Higashino headed into X Games Foz do Iguacu as the favorite to win. It’s not a position in which he’s used to being.

To make matters even more difficult for Higashino, he had to deal with the death of friend and idol Eigo Sato, which happened at the end of February.

“I’m not used to that kind of pressure,” Higashino said. “It’s hard. [It got so bad] I didn’t even want to come here.”

Higashino didn’t know what the right move was: Should he sit out of the competition? Or should he push even harder to honor the memory of Sato?

He decided to push forward.

Higashino was the final rider to hit the course in the Freestyle Moto X final, which took place as the sun began to set on the final day of X Games Foz do Iguacu. Just prior to him hitting the course, another friend of his, Jacko Strong, went down hard when he under-rotated on a backflip, tumbling unconscious directly in front of Higashino, as he awaited his turn on the course.

“I didn’t even want to look at him,” Higashino said. “I just thought, ‘If you can do this, you’re a professional. If you can’t, you’re an amateur. So what are you?’”

Higashino hit the course and hit all of his tricks – including his Rock-Solid Backflip – putting in an incredibly clean run to land a score of 91.66, which led the field.

“After the run, I couldn’t remember any of it,” Higashino said. “I just remember finishing and being really, really happy.”

When it came time for him to hit the course again for his second and final run, none of the other riders had been able to get into the 90s on their scores, much less overtake Higashino’s score. He had clinched X Games Gold for the second time in a row.

“I can’t believe it,” Higashino said. “I feel like, if I can do this, it can only get easier from here. I don’t think I’ll ever feel this kind of pressure again.”