The X Games is an annual sports event which focuses on extreme sports. There are 2 games every year: The summer X-Games and the Winter X-Games. It is presented by ESPN, the sports television network. Athletes from around the world compete for gold, silver, and bronze medals, as well as money and prizes.
The X Games consists of two versions: a summer competition and a winter competition. The first summer games were held in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, in 1995. The winter competition was added two years later, at Big Bear Lake, California. Currently, the winter games are always held in Aspen, Colorado, and the summer games are always held in Los Angeles, California.
Concurrent with competition is the "X Fest" sports and music festival, which offers live music, athlete autograph sessions, and interactive elements. All that together makes the competition one of the greatest festivals all around the world.
X Games events can vary from year to year, but generally they consist of different competitions of these sports:
- Skiing
- Snowboarding
- BMX biking
- Moto X Enduro
- Skateboarding.
Many X Games athletes compete in world championships. For example, Sarah Burke, from Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, has been named one of the best freestyle skiers in the world. She is a three-time X Games gold medalist. Other X Games athletes represent their countries in the Olympics. Shaun White, who has won Olympic gold medals in snowboarding, is also an X Games athlete. White, a native of Southern California, has won X Games medals in both snowboarding (at the winter games) and skateboarding (at the summer games).
Summer Games:
The Summer X Games is held in a warm environment and includes competitions in skateboarding, BMX biking, motorcycling, rally car racing, and surfing.
Skateboarders compete in the half pipe, a hollow semi-circle made of concrete. Athletes skate up and down two opposing ramps and perform tricks when they reach the top. There is also a competition for the best trick and most air off a jump. In "street" competitions, skateboarders skate around a park of obstacles and perform tricks.
Skateboarder Tony Hawk, from San Diego, California, is probably the best-known X Games athlete in the world. In addition to having an outstanding sports career, Hawk has a successful skateboarding video game series.
In the video that you can see on the next page, Tony performs for the first time in history a 900 degrees trick, an aerial spin performed on a skateboard ramp.
Another important X-Athlete is Travis Pastrana (born October 8, 1983). He is an American motorsports competitor and stunt performer who has won championships and X Games gold medals in several events, including supercross, motocross, freestyle motocross, and rally racing.
In the first X-Games, celebrated in 1999, Pastrana won the first-ever MotoX Freestyle event at the X Games. He also scores the highest-ever Freestyle run score of 99.00 points.
In the 2006 X-Games, Travis becomes the third athlete to win three Gold medals at a single X Games Event. He wins Gold in MotoX Best Trick, MotoX Freestyle, and Rally Car Racing.
During these Games, Pastrana performed the first Double Backflip in competition, scoring a 98.60, the highest score in the Best Trick competition at X Games.
You can see the video on the next page.
Winter Games:
The Winter X Games is held in a snowy mountain environment and features winter sports such as snowboarding, skiing, and snowmobiling. Competitors in those sports face off in a variety of different ways.
In Skier-X (also called ski cross) and Snowboarder-X (also called boardercross), athletes do not race individually, the way they do in most sports competitions. Athletes in Skier-X and Snowboarder-X race head-to-head, going down the mountain four–at–a time. The courses feature a variety of terrain, including jumps, moguls, and bank turns. Ski cross was an Olympic sport for the first time in 2010, when the Games were held in Vancouver, Canada.
In a Winter X Games event called slopestyle, skiers or snowboarders individually choose their own route through a course with many of the same features and obstacles as Skier-X and Snowboarder-X.
But instead of trying to get down the course as fast as possible, they use the features to perform tricks and are judged on how well they perform them. There are also competitions to see which athlete can perform the best trick or get the most air, or height, off a jump. Travis Rice, who learned to ski near his home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, is a snowboarder who competes in slopestyle events.
The X Games snowmobiling competitions include Snocross, in which competitors race on snowmobiles around a track with steep jumps and obstacles. Snocross competitions are held outside the X Games, too, with the world championships held in Falun, Sweden.
The first Winter X-Games were celebrated in 1997 in Big Bear Lake, California. As you can imagine, they are always celebrated in January or February.
Since 2002 they are celebrated in Aspen, Colorado.
One of the most famous Winter X-athletes is the Norwegian Torstein Horgmo.
He was born on 18 February, 1987. He grew up in Trondheim, Norway, before eventually moving to Oslo. Horgmo first began snowboarding when he was twelve years old, prior to which he had only skied.
won a gold medal in Snowboard Big Air at the 2008 Winter X Games XII in Aspen, Colorado, after first beating Travis Rice in the finals, and Kevin Pearce in the semifinal. Travis Rice took his revenge at the 2009 Winter X Games beating Torstein in the final.
At the 2012 X-Games, he was the first person to land a triple cork 1440 in the Winter X Games Big Air Final, scoring a perfect score of 50/50. You can see the video on the next page.
One year later he was the first person ever to land a switch triple cork 1440 obtaining again a perfect score of 50/50
Let's review some of the most important moments in X-Games.
In 2004, Chuck Carothers lands the first body varial. Enjoy the video:
In 2002, Matt Hoffman was the first person to land a no-handed 900 in BMX:
In the 2006 X-Games Kevin Robinson became the first person to land a double flair on BMX Vert:
In 2013 Ryan Sheckler was the first (and only) 13 year old boy to earn a gold medal in the X-Games: