MIRRA IMAGE

Dave Mirra draws attention just about any time he arrives at the scene of an action sports competition, and this year’s X Games was no exception.

This time, however, the attention centered on his bike. More specifically, the 24-karat gold-plated frame on his bike.

Mirra crashed during his first run of the BMX vert competition Thursday night at Staples Center and was unable to make his second run because of minor injuries to his head and right hip.

The spill denied him the opportunity to defend his title in the event, but he will have two more opportunities when he competes in BMX park and BMX best trick on Saturday. The $7,500 bike ensured he left with gold. Mirra is used to it. He is the most decorated athlete in X Games history with 18 medals, 13 of which are gold.

He has competed in every X Games since their inception in 1995 and last year passed skateboarding icon Tony Hawk on the all-time medals list. Hawk retired from competition two years ago, leaving the X Games and other action sports competitions without its most popular face. Mirra, insiders say, is poised to take his place.

“There is no question that Dave has supplanted Tony as one of a few lead spokespeople for us,” said Chris Stiepock, general manager of the X Games. “No one can completely replace Tony, but Dave has, as best as one can, taken the mantle form Tony. He’s become somebody who has become the face of the X Games.”

Mirra, 31, brushes aside such a notion.

“I don’t feel like that’s my duty to fill anybody’s shoes,” he said, adding that he has no visions of iconic status. But some things just can’t be controlled.

He has become more of a mainstream figure than any other current action sports star by appearing in national television commercials, hosting the MTV reality show “Real World vs. Road Rules: Inferno” and competing against athletes from the NBA, NFL and other mainstream sports in ESPN’s bowling night.

He’s also made cameo prime-time network television appearances on ABC’s “George Lopez” and NBC’s “Las Vegas” and has been a guest on “Late Show With David Letterman,” “The Today Show” and “Good Morning America.” Sports Illustrated, TV Guide and Rolling Stone have featured Mirra in articles and he has a video game series named after him.

Still, Mirra said, he isn’t trying to follow in the footsteps of Hawk, who successfully transitioned from a cult figure to a mainstream icon after finding success in skateboarding.

“I don’t feel obligated to be the next Tony Hawk, that’s for sure,” he said. “Tony is a great guy, a leader of action sports in terms of doing so much for it. If people compare me to that, that’s awesome, that’s cool. But I’m out here riding and competing and trying to be the best rider that I can.”

Usually that’s pretty good. He’s been riding bikes since he was a child, started racing as a teenager, but gravitated to stunt riding because the race track was a 45-minute drive from his home in upstate New York.

“So we always started goofing off building jumps and riding off everyday after school,” Mirra said.

He turned professional at 17 and a few years later ventured to North Carolina, where he was impressed with a bike park in Greensboro. He never imagined he’d still be doing it 10 years later, riding for a career or using his success as a stunt rider as a springboard to celebrity.

“Look at this,” he said, harkening back to the days of jumping makeshift ramps on beat-up bikes until dusk. “We’re in the Staples Center and I got a gold bike. It’s to the hilt, man. Everything is getting bigger and better. Prize money is bigger, endorsements are bigger, this is cool.”

Cool, that is, unless you have to compete against him.

Ryan Nyquist, a friend and competitor of Mirra, said the “Miracle Boy” is the rider to beat in just about every competition. He added that Mirra is the perfect guy to carry action sports into the mainstream.

“When anybody that’s not really in the know is talking about our sport, he’s the guy that the name comes up,” Nyquist said. “It’s awesome. I think he’s a good representation and he keeps everything good for us.”

Those outside the X Games have taken note. Wade Martin, general manager of the Dew Action Sports Tour, said Mirra is one of his go-to guys when promoting his fledgling events.

“Dave’s got tremendous star power,” Martin said. “He’s now the face of action sports and the impressive thing is that even with all that he is doing, he still backs it up with winning.”

To Mirra, that isn’t even the top priority. His goal, he said, is to have fun. When he stops enjoying himself, he said, he’ll quit. Until then, he’ll keep enjoying the spoils of his popularity.

The danger of attaining such popularity in cult sports such as BMX is being labeled a sellout. As action sports move more into the mainstream, that attitude has dissipated a bit, but the culture still dictates that athletes remain true to themselves.

Mirra said he has done that. The MTV hosting gig was for experience. He said after his riding career is over, he might want to try television broadcasting. He agreed to do the bowling show, he said, because he enjoys bowling and is in a league at home.

“A couple of people I’m sure said ‘sellout,’ but that’s just jealousy and you realize that’s just animosity,” Mirra said. “I went through my whole life riding my bike when it wasn’t cool to ride a bike, so I consider I’ve broken down barriers way before whoever is calling me a sellout. I’m not afraid of that.”

Besides, he said, he’s using his popularity to bring respect to action sports.

On ESPN’s bowling night, for instance, the 16 bowlers included Terrell Owens of the Philadelphia Eagles, Willis McGahee of the Buffalo Bills, Dwyane Wade of the Miami Heat and eventual champion Damon Jones of the Heat.

“Now they might see me on TV and go, ‘That’s the dude from bowling,’ ” Mirra said. “So that’s kind of cool, man. If anything, it’s kind of cool to give back some respect to what I do in action sports.”