January 28th 2012
One of the most spectacular events in world snowsports are underway this weekend at Aspen in Colorado, the X Games have been a huge draw for two decades now and the two-and-a-half million Facebook fans for the annual event shows just how popular they remain to this day.
The summer X Games are where skateboard legend Tony Hawk first found fame and the winter games the birthplace on to the world stage of snowboarder Shaun White.
There’s an added poignancy to this year’s contest however following the death of Canadian freeskiing star Sarah Burke earlier this month, and every athlete at this weekend’s contest is now competing in Sarah’s honour.
The 29-year-old was the defending SuperPipe champion, having won six previous X Games golds, but died in hospital on January 19th, nine days after an accident in the Park City halfpipe. Burke had had to lobby to have female skiers allowed in to the X Games and would have been favourite when her sport debuts at the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014.
The X games brings together two events – slopestyle and half pipe, for the two disciplines of freeski and snowboard and with the two genders that equals eight spectacular competitions with the atmosphere of a rock concert adding to the excitement. Demonstration events like airborne snowmobiling demos help build the fun – they’re great to attend.
Both slopestyle and halfpipe will be new at the Sochi Games so the X Games are proving the driving force in international snowsports competition at the highest level.
The best news of the past few years however for us in Europe is that the franchise has crossed the Atlantic and will be back for its third season in Tignes, France this March, where the recent huge snowfalls means things are looking great for pipe construction.
It’s rapidly got big in France too with more than 74,500 fans attending last year’s Winter X Games Europe and 400 journalists from 15 countries accredited for the three day event enabling the world’s best riders to hit maximum height and speed for their spectacular tricks.
The Tignes pipe is created by Frank Wells from Snow Park Technology in America and local Benjamin Ravanel who require 44,000 cubic metres of snow to create their pipe.
Superstars of the snow due to compete include Frenchman Kevin Rolland, four times gold medal winner in the super pipe competition and Swiss boarder Iouri Podladtchikov who took the gold in the snowboard superpipe event in 2010.
From the USA Louie Vito who won the gold in the SuperPipe Snowboard contest last year and Kelly Clark (USA) who won the ladies equivalent event should be in attendance at the contest from 14 – 16 March. They will lead more than 150 athletes taking part at Tignes including several highly rated British contenders.
So if you want some razamataz with your ski or board holiday but don’t want to be locked in to one of the spring time music festivals in the Alps, the Winter X Games in Europe ( www.winterxgameseurope.com) could be your answer!
