In life, when something bad happens, something good almost always comes back. Jolene Van Vugt found that lesson the hard way.
Former Nitro Circus Girl Jolene Van Vugt is now a Hollywood stuntwoman just after a year and half when she almost lost her life in an accident, according to a report from ESPN. Jolene Van Vugt is currently doing stunt scenes for NBC's Blindspot.
Jolene Van Vugt's career as Nitro Girl came only by accident. Back in July of 2005, Jolene Van Vugt visited Travis Pastrana at his Maryland residence. During that time, Travis Pastrana told Jolene Van Vugt that he's looking for a female rider that can do a backflip and that he was unsuccessful in his search.
Having no experience in hitting her dirt bike on a ramp, Jolene Van Vugt still went for it. Jolene Van Vugt, with the guidance of Travis Pastrana, then soon became the first woman to successfully do a backflip in a full-sized dirt bike in just two months.
Jolene Van Vugt then went on to do various stunts for Nitro Circus. In 2011, Jolene Van Vugt auditioned to be the double of Anne Hathaway riding the Batpod in the film The Dark Knight Rises.
After the The Dark Knight Rises, the lure of returning to Nitro Circus was too hard to resist as Jolene Van Vugt went back. Then in September of 2015, a day before her 35th birthday, Jolene Van Vugt's life took a dramatic turn.
On that fateful September day, Jolene Van Vugt had an accident that almost killed her. During a practice run, the barrel that Jolene Van Vugt was riding on a ramp loses control and she went flying off the ramp.
Jolene Van Vugt's right elbow hits the scaffolding and her face smashed into one of the poles a few feet away. As a result of the crash, Jolene Van Vugt had surgery on her broken arm and reconstructive surgery on her face, via a report from Philly.com.
Jolene Van Vugt didn't want the video shown but couldn't do anything about it as then Nitro Circus' CEO Mike Porra told her that he owns the video. After a few months away, Jolene Van Vugt gave an ultimatum that she would only return if the video is not shown.
The video stayed and Jolene Van Vugt had no choice but to walk away. The rest is history as Jolene Van Vugt went on and fulfilled her lifelong dream of being a Hollywood stuntwoman.
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