Long before the mainstream focused their attention on freeskiing and snowboarding, there was a little event in “a little place called Aspen,” known as the X Games. For years, X Games has been the biggest event in action sports. It is where athletes such as Shaun White, Tanner Hall, Simon Dumont and Torin Yater-Wallace made their mark on the sport. X Games continues to be the main event that athletes train for year after year.

This year, I had the pleasure of revisiting Aspen, amongst the action sports enthusiasts, the masses of Texans and the student population of CU Boulder (Go Buffs). As always, X Games was a weekend of firsts: I witnessed Gus Kenworthy land the first triple flip in a freeskiing slopestyle event, I saw the first snowboard big air where athletes needed to throw a triple in their preliminary round in order to advance to finals, and I watched as Danny Davis advance to his first X Games final, then as he proceeded to win his first X Games gold medal. It was an amazing journey to Colorado and I can’t wait to return to the prestigious event next year. Now that X Games is in the bag, it is time to focus our attention on that other, slightly bigger, competition taking place in Russia.

 

By Brian Schroy