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Kelly Clark, a two-time superpipe gold medalist, is up for competing in her eighth X Games. (ARNO Balzarini/Associated Press) |
How much is an X Games gold medal worth?
Thirty grand.
More than 250 athletes are expected at Winter X Games 12, which run today through Sunday at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colo., and feature a $1 million prize purse. The Games will be televised in high definition on ESPN and ABC.
"When the X Games first started, the total prize money was $186,000," said ESPN public relations director Katie Moses Swope. "Athletes are progressing in their sports and we have to keep up with their caliber of talent."
Last year a gold medal came with a $20,000 payday.
Avenues for breakout action sports for more than a decade, big air and speed and style are the new twists.
Big air is no stranger in the skiing and snowboarding world, where athletes launch themselves while engaging in gravity-defying maneuvers. Big air skiing is new to the Games, while big air snowboarding returns.
The contest is attracting an international contingent of skiers, such as Canadians Charles Gagnier and T.J. Schiller while big-name riders such as Andreas Wiig and Travis Rice are signed up on the snowboard side. Skiers and riders will take flight from a 65-foot step-up gap.
Levi LaValle and X Games bronze medalist Heath Frisby are competing in the debut of Snowmobile Speed and Style, a marriage of fastness and flips as riders go head-to-head.
Two riders start side-by-side. They delve into designated lanes - one has steel freestyle kickers while the other is for racing/snocross. Then they switch. Judges score the riders half on time, half on tricks.
Fresh and familiar faces grace the Games. Shaun Palmer gets the dubious distinction of being the oldest snowboarder to compete in X history at age 39. He'll be riding in the motorcross-style Snowboarder X along with gold medal Olympian Seth Wescott and two-time gold X medal winner Nate Holland.
Women's Snowboarder X has top-notch talent in Lindsey Jacobellis, Tanja Frieden, and Joanie Anderson.
With skiercross set to debut in the 2010 Olympics, four-time Olympian Casey Puckett, former US Ski Team speed skiing sensation Daron Rahlves, and Zach Crist may corner the jumps and rollers of the Skier X course.
Tyler Walker - the other skier from Franconia, N.H. - is looking for a repeat gold in the Mono Skier X.
Returning big guns include Shaun White, Danny Kass, Simon Dumont, Tanner Hall, Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark, Hannah Teter, and Torah Bright. White's one gold medal away from gathering the most gold medals in X history.
Dumont's X Games intention is simple: medal in every category he enters. The Bethel, Me.-born freestyling groundbreaker is competing in skiing's superpipe, slopestyle, and big air. "I want to medal in each event and go home with a big smile on my face," he said.
Superpipe has been his domain, a place where he throws in lofty amplitude along with high-flying 540s and even a monstrous 1260. That's 3 1/2 rotations.
"To be honest, I probably learned that the day before X Games last year," said Dumont, 21, who has a gymnastics background. "I went for it, landed it, and haven't fallen on one yet, knock on wood."
Since 2004, Dumont has medaled in every X Games superpipe with two gold, one silver, and a bronze.
But slopestyle hasn't yielded a treasure chest of medals. He had two fourth-place finishes in 2005 and '07.
"I don't know," he said. "It just hasn't come around for me in the X Games."
Then there's big air.
"That's only one trick," Dumont said. "You only have to think about one thing."
If '07 was any indication, Dumont could carry out his triple-play plan. Not only was he the overall 2007 Honda Ski Tour winner, but Dumont had a second-place slopestyle finish in the Orage European Open and three straight big-air podium finishes in the Swiss Freestyle.ch, Icer Air, and Sweden's King of Style.
Clark's riding high this season. It started back in August with a halfpipe win at the Australian Open and a second-place finish at the New Zealand Open. In December she was on the podium again, this time at the Chevy Grand Prix in Breckenridge, Colo. She's second in the TTR World Snowboard Tour rankings.
"I'm just having fun snowboarding," said the Newport, R.I., native and 2002 Olympic gold medalist. "I'm focusing on my halfpipe riding and planning it out with my sights set on Vancouver. I want to perfect my tricks next year and then ramp it up again for 2010."
Clark, 24, is competing in her eighth Winter X Games. She's earned four medals - two gold, two silver - all in the superpipe. Her last gold finish was in 2006.
"We kind of see the same crew of riders," she said about her X Games history. "There are a lot of good young kids coming up, too."
Clark would like to medal again.
"That's the plan," she said. "I'll be feeling things out in the pipe. I want to ride in Friday's finals."
Clark was based at Mount Snow in southern Vermont for much of her snowboarding career. She plans to be back in the Green Mountain State in March for the Chevy Grand Prix at Killington, followed by the US Open at Stratton.
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