230 athletes, thousands of fans and 39 medals were part of an anniversary celebration: Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado, was the site of the tenth Winter X Games from January 28 to 31.

ESPN, one of the largest American TV sports broadcasters, had an idea back in 1993: to create a kind of Olympic Games for all those athletes who didn’t fit nicely into Olympic categories–extreme athletes like skaters, boarders or BMX riders. The idea became reality in 1995 in Rhode Island. People called it the X Games, and the X stood for extreme.

Just like at the O Games, medals in gold, silver and bronze were distributed. Tony Hawk was the first star. He took gold in the Vert and silver in the Street, becoming a poster boy for the Games in the process. (All told, by 2002 he’d amassed nine golds, three silvers and three bronzes.)

In 1997, the idea of making an X out of an O was translated onto snow for the first time. The Winter X-Games in Big Bear Lake made a star out of Shaun Palmer. He was just as dominating on a snowboard as on a mountain bike. And now, January 28 in Aspen marks a special anniversary: it will be the tenth time athletes snowboard, freestyle FMX and freeride. Additional helpful info: Buttermilk Mountain is 9,900 feet (3,018 metres) high, and all the events are free and open to the public.
Christian Pondella
Christian Pondella