The X Games are known for pushing the limits in extreme sports, featuring some of the wildest competitions in skiing, snowboarding, skateboarding, BMX, and motocross. The event has seen quite a few different sports come and go, including surfing, rallycross, mountain biking, street luge, climbing, and more in the summer, and ice climbing, snowmobiling (returning to the games in 2026), snow mountain bike racing, and more in the winter. But perhaps the most unique sport to feature in the games was the shovel racing.
Shovel racing is done on large shovels, with the competitors using their hand slow down or stop when necessary. Steering is done by leaning back and forth. Of course that means there isn’t much control once you actually get going, so the sport is nowhere near the safest in the world.
Shovel racing made its debut at the very first Winter X Games in 1997, but it was quickly removed due to (pretty valid) safety concerns. Fans of the shovels can still find a few competitions around the country, like Angel Fire‘s shovel races that went down last year in New Mexico.
