The Pros Hit the Slopes

Names like Chloe Kim, Shaun White, Scotty James, Mark McMorris and Kelly Clark may sound familiar to you. These Olympic winter sports icons face the cold and wind and contort their bodies in jumps and on rail gardens to wow the audience and put up a high score but on a different stage.

The Winter X Games debuted in 1997 at Big Bear Mountain Resort in California. Since 2002, Aspen, Colorado’s Buttermilk Resort has played host to this action sports event.

Snowboarding was a pioneer sport of the Winter X Games in 1997, with variations of the sport developing throughout the years. Skiing was added later on in 1998. Skiing and snowboarding are the two primary sports for X Games Aspen.

Winter X Games events include men’s and women’s divisions of ski and snowboard SuperPipe, ski and snowboard Big Air, ski and snowboard Slopestyle and ski and snowboard Street Style.

A fairly new X Games event called Knuckle Huck, whose snowboard division debuted in 2020, has been the focus for the 2024 contest. Female skiers and snowboarders got the chance to compete in Knuckle Huck for the first time this year. The challenge tests skiers’ and snowboarders’ skill and creativity using the knuckle—the knoll of snow that the ramped big air jump sits on top of. Athletes must “pop” off the knuckle and land in transition from a flat surface to a steeper decline, according to the official X Games website.

The winner of this year’s men’s snowboard Knuckle Huck contest was a shocker; Canada’s Liam Brearley upset American Zeb Powell to take X Games gold. Powell is considered one of the best in Knuckle Huck creativity and was the favorite for the competition.

However, an American did see victory in the men’s ski Knuckle Huck, as Colby Stevenson walked away with a gold medal. Chloe Kim was another American to win an event; she took home first place hardware for the women’s snowboard SuperPipe event. This was Kim’s seventh X Games SuperPipe gold medal, tying her with legend Kelly Clark. Kim was also the first woman to land a Cab 1260 in a women’s halfpipe competition.

Red Gerard, an American who resides not far from Buttermilk Resort, claimed gold in the men’s snowboard Slopestyle event, finishing just one point ahead of veteran Mark McMorris from Canada. Gerard threw together a clean final run to secure his first X Games Slopestyle gold medal.

Some other victors include Australian Scotty James in the men’s snowboard SuperPipe event, China’s Eileen Gu in the women’s ski SuperPipe, France’s Tess Ledeux in the women’s ski Big Air and Canadian Olivia Asselin in the women’s ski Knuckle Huck.

A full list of this year’s X Games Aspen results can be found on the X Games website.

Sources: BleacherReport, X Games