The Denver Post

ATHLETES WON’T HOLD BACK EARLY

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aspen » Instead of battling through heated qualifying rounds, a smaller field of skiers and snowboarde­rs are heading straight to the finals in the X Games halfpipe and slopestyle course this year.

There’s no time to test the waters, no gradual progressio­n toward the big run.

With 12 men and eight women fighting through a best- of- three run finals format, expect to see the biggest tricks and heated action from the start.

The halfpipe qualifiers at Aspen’s X Games were “always the most high pressure and intense” as 16 of the world’s top skiers were whittled down to eight, said DavidWise, who has three X Games halfpipe golds and was Olympic gold medalist.

“I think we are going to see … people going for it a little more,” Wise said of Thursday’s halfpipe contest. “It’s definitely going to be more interestin­g than any X Games we’ve had in the past.”

History lesson.

Danny Davis, the colorful snowboarde­r aiming for a golden three- peat in the X Games snowboard halfpipe Saturday, lamented about the 20 years of X Games. He misses shovel racing. “I was heartbroke­n when shovel racing was dropped,” said Davis, tongue in cheek.

With “athletes” reaching

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