This past weekend, fans around the world gathered at the base of Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colorado, to watch some of the best in winter action sports compete for the infamous X Games Gold Medal.
The Winter X Games has been a major competition for skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers since its creation in 1997. The Winter X Games opened in Big Bear Lake, California, and moved from Crested Butte, Colorado, to Mount Snow, Vermont, until it found its home in Aspen, Colorado, where it has been held since 2002.
The competition is a four-day event that highlights the best of winter action sports, with events ranging from Snowmobile Freestyle to Snowboard SuperPipe and Ski Slopestyle.
Getting on the podium at the X Games is a dream that only a few athletes reach, and upsets are a yearly occurrence.
With any winter event, the weather is always a concern. On Saturday evening, the Winter X Games changed the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe Final to a one-run final due to inclement weather, meaning that the first run counts as the final result, placing some of the top contenders, such as Danny Davis and Iouri Podladtchikov, at the bottom of the pack.
The Men’s Ski Big Air was also affected by the weather, ending with many athletes dodging the jump before they approached because the snow made it difficult to see and navigate through.
Heading into the 2016 Winter X Games Danny Davis, a snowboarder from Michigan, was the poster boy for the events. In 2015, he defended his gold-medal title in the Men’s Snowboard Superpipe competition and was the reigning gold medalist heading into 2016. Yet as the event came to a close, Davis finished ninth out of 12 in the 2016 X Games.
Mark McMorris, a Canadian snowboarder who was a favorite to win this past weekend, clinched his sixth career gold medal at the X Games on Saturday at just 22 years old in the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle event. This is McMorris’s fourth gold medal in that event since 2012.
Another athlete that has been on the radar for the 2016 X Games was Gus Kenworthy. Kenworthy has been a top athlete skiing for the past six years and took home a silver medal from the Sochi Olympics for Men’s Slopestyle Skiing in 2014. In October of 2015, Kenworthy announced to the world that he was gay, making himself the first action sports athlete to ever come out.
Although Kenworthy has been a dominating force in his field, he had failed to ever place in Aspen—until now. On Friday night, Kenworthy took home the silver medal in Men’s Ski Superpipe and went on to snatch another silver medal on Sunday in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle, making him one of only a few athletes to take home medals in both events. Kenworthy has said that the weight he carried from not telling anyone about his sexuality directly affected his prior performances in Aspen.
Over the years, the X Games has evolved from being considered a mere sporting event. It now brings music, entertainment and sports together and is growing into a cultural experience.
This year the music lineup for the Winter X Games included performances from deadmau5, DJ Snake, Kygo, Nas, Run the Jewels and Twenty One Pilots. Last year Aspen saw performances from Snoop Dogg, Wiz Khalifa, Skrillex and Chromeo.
The Winter X Games are set to be held in Aspen through 2019, so the fun won’t stop this year. Next year will bring new trials, athletes and gold medal winners.
