ATHLETES WON’T HOLD BACK EARLY
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