Here are a few videos from Atomic Skiing of the first two days of practice at Winter X Games 16. You can get an idea of the slopestyle course and halfpipe that will be used in competitions this weekend as well as a behind the scenes look into what is going through the heads of riders in the days before the events.
A Brief History
The X Games was origionally introduced as the Extreme Games in 1995 by ESPN and was held in Rhode Island. There were 27 events in 9 different categories which are completely different than those today: Bungy Jumping, Eco-Challenge, In-line Skating, Skateboarding, Skysurfing, Sport Climbing, Street Luge, Biking and Water Sports. Over the years the (now) X Games morphed into sporting events for BMX, Moto Cross, Skateboarding and even Rally Racing and in 1997 the first Winter X Games. Today the Winter X Games include various Skiing, Snowboarding and Snowmobiling events.
X Games Criticism
Though there is a lot of hype around the X Games, there is also a number of people who dislike the X Games. The judging systems have been criticized for being unfair for example how some riders have admitted to throwing up their arms after a run because they feel they get high scores.
Another controversy was over the 2009 Winter X Snowboard Big Air Final when the “public” voted for the winner via text messaging. Sadly enough, though ESPN broadcasts the event internationally, only residents of the United States could vote. This resulted in an upset over Travis Rice’s Double Cork 1080 with a nice added revert getting 92% of the votes over Mikkel Bangs switch BS 1260 as well as Torstien Horgmo who also threw a 1260. Todd Richards, one of the pioneers of snowboarding even stated in order to win, “Torstien would need to cure aids and herpes to win plus do a 14.000.000 (rotation)”.
There are plenty of other criticisms over the X Games, the commercialization of action sports being one, but it’s still a great event to watch on TV in terms of pushing the limits and see a handful of each sports top athletes ride together and have fun.
X Games 16 kicks off today in Aspen, Colorado. The events run from January 26th to 29th and showcase some of the best winter action sports athletes as they compete on some of the best competition courses out there. You can find the Eastern Timezone Tune In Schedule here, and if your in another part of the world, well you’ll have to figure it out yourself (like myself).
