After living in Colorado for seven years, I have finally made it to my first Winter X-Games in Aspen. Needless to say, it has exceeded all expectations so far and has been absolutely action-packed. All of the competing athletes seem fired up and genuinely excited to take on the challenges that await them including some events that are brand new for X-Games 2024.

X-Games is a three day event with ski and snowboard competitions happening every few hours. Only the best skiers and snowboarders in the world get invited to compete at X-Games, and the events that they compete in are rewarded with gold, silver, and bronze medals. What makes X-Games so special is that there are athletes like Sean White who go on these unparalleled, several-year long runs and are the undisputed best at their discipline juxtaposed with stories like Chloe Kim who come in as a rookie and break records for being the youngest to ever do it. X-Games takes all of the best on-snow talent from around the world and makes an extremely competitive and unforgettable weekend out of it.

I first arrived at Buttermilk Mountain pretty early this morning to ensure that I had a parking spot and everything I needed for my day of riding, watching, and interviewing. To kick off the day, I took a few laps on the Summit, Tiehack, and West Buttermilk chairlifts. Although there was a bunch of fresh snow left over in spots from the awesome storm cycle that basically took over the month of January, most of the mountain was in hardpack conditions. But, a couple of park laps and cruisers through the Aspen groves was all I needed before heading to competitions for the rest of the day.

The first competition that I watched was the all-new game of ‘SLVSH’ between some of the best park skiers in the game. Essentially, the format of this event is like a game of ‘Horse’ in basketball: one athlete calls their trick and their opponent has to follow it up, otherwise they receive a letter. The 1-v-1 format of this event was a really refreshing change from what is usually seen in winter sports competitions, and modeling it off of an urban street scene only encouraged more unique creativity. This was the standalone unmedaled event of the weekend, but the athletes still were highly engaged with their competition and were rewarded with gold watches. The game between Jesper and Max, specifically, was intense and felt like it might never end. In fact, when I asked Jesper and Max about their thoughts after the competition, they both agreed that a longer time frame for the event would be a significant improvement. The ski SLVSH games were a great way to kick off X-Games weekend and I am definitely looking forward to watching the snowboarders go head-to-head in this event as well.

Watching Chloe Kim do her thing in the halfpipe in person was unbelievable. When the Women’s SuperPipe competition was getting started, you could just feel her presence in the air and knew that she was ready to take over X-Games weekend again. All it took was one run for Chloe to score in the high nineties and put all of her opponents on the ropes. After a couple more rounds, getting to see Chloe take her victory lap was awesome; she was once the youngest female to ever win gold in halfpipe and now she is on her own path of pure dominance.

My last event of the day was the Men’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck, a star-studded and highly anticipated event over the last few years at X-Games. In the Knuckle Huck, rather than launching off of the jump itself, athletes jump off of the area they would normally be jumping over, the knuckle. Big Names like Zeb Powell and Miles Fallon were some of the headlining athletes of this event, but all of the competitors went huge off the knuckle. Getting to watch the practice session for this event made me realize how different it is than other events over the weekend; every time athletes would ride out of their tricks you could catch glimpses of some pretty large smiles. It is clear that this event is not only a fan favorite but an athlete-favorite as well, and that the competitors will truly show out and go all in for the knuckle huck. In the most fitting way possible, Liam Brearley, who was not even originally competing in this event, took home the gold. There were way too many awesome tricks in this event to even try describing any.

My first day at X-Games 2024 was a success. Getting to see the athletes compete in their disciplines, and at the practices beforehand, was a special experience. As an avid snowboarder myself, I can’t even begin to imagine trying some of the rotations, rail tricks, and technical lines that these athletes were hitting all day. Buttermilk is a fantastic venue for X-Games, and I cannot wait for what more is to come this weekend. It is safe to say the athletes have been putting on a show so far.

 

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Day One Results

Ski Game of SLVSH

• Colby Stevenson, Jesper Tjader, Olivia Asselin, & Rell Harwood

Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle

1. Mia Brookes (GBR)
2. Kokomo Murase (JPN)
3. Reira Iwabuchi (JPN)

Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe

1. Chloe Kim (USA)
2. Mitsuki Ono (JPN)
3. Xuetong Cai (CHN)

Men’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck

1. Liam Brearly (CAN)
2. Zab Powel (USA)
3. Darcy Sharoe (CAN)

Men’s Ski Big Air

1. Troy Podmilsak (USA)
2. Alex Hall (USA)
3. Daniel Bacher (AUT)

Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe

1. Scotty James (AUS)
2. Ruka Hirano (JPN)
3. Kaishu Hirano (JPN)