Skiing, snowmobiling and snowboarding to close this edition of the X Games in Aspen.
The fourth and final day of X Games has arrived, closing out the first of six dates of the Global X Games. Aspen said goodbye in style to the extreme games that bring together the most stars with a spectacular finale.
The first final of the day was ski slopestyle where 18-year-old Nick Goepper took home the gold medal. Last year, Nick had missed out on the gold when Tom Wallisch scored the highest score in the history of the discipline on the final run. This year, Goepper was clear that he wasn’t going to let that happen again and scored a 94 to put him on top of the podium. Second place went to Sweden’s Hanrik Harlaut who had taken first place in big air the night before with an incredible butter triple cork 1620. Harlaut earned his second medal with a flawless run of 92.66 points, just enough to pass James Woods who took bronze in his first X Games appearance.
The women's final in the same discipline was eventful from the start when Rose Battersby suffered a serious accident during practice and was taken to a Denver hospital for a spinal fracture. Despite the incident, the competition took its course and was completely dominated by X Games first-timer Tiril Sjastad Christiansen. At just 17 years old, the Norwegian dethroned the favorite and dominant competitor of these competitions, Kaya Turski. Turski fell in her first two rounds and was heading into her third round in last place. Before her final run, another skier suffered an accident and had to receive medical attention, delaying the event by 30 minutes. When the all-clear, Kaya made her third run and showed why she is the favorite by scoring a solid 90 that placed her in second place. Bronze went to another newcomer to this competition, Canadian Dara Howell.
Meanwhile, in the snowmobile SnoCross, the legendary Tucker Hibbert claimed his sixth consecutive gold medal. Tucker dominated the race from the start and increased his lead as the laps went by, finishing the course more than 11 seconds ahead of bronze-winner Ross Martin. Third place went to Tim Tremblay, nearly 27 seconds behind Tucker.
The snowmobile action continued with the best trick, which was affected by the absence of one of the favorites, six-time medalist Levi LaVallee, who was forced to retire after experiencing severe pain in his back and left triceps during practice jumps. This left the way clear for Daniel Bodin, who took home the gold medal with an Indian air backflip. In second place was a disappointed Joe Parsons, who despite flawlessly executing a trick he had never done before, the Gator Hater, was unable to reach the top of the podium. “It seems like doing a new trick doesn’t count for anything, it’s the first time anyone has tried it and it came out perfect,” said Parson, referring to the judges’ decision. In third place was Heath Frisby with an incredible underflip in his X Games debut.
The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the snowboard super pipe final. The defending gold medalist was none other than Shaun White, who last year scored a perfect 100 points for his back to back double cork 1260. White flawlessly repeated his run from the previous year, scoring 98 points and thus taking his sixth consecutive gold medal.In second place was Japanese flyer Ayumu Hirano, who at just 14 years old stunned the judges with his range and fluidity. With a double McTwist 1260, Finland's Markus Malin finished third for the first medal of his career. White's biggest medal threat, Iuri Podladtchikov (better known as I-pod), was unable to compete due to a bad flu after having qualified ahead of him in Thursday's heats.
This brings to a close another edition of the Winter X Games, which was characterised by taking extreme sports to the next level. This is just the first stop on the 2013 Global X Games, which will next take place in Tignes in March for more snow action.
