Aspen – A lot can happen in a decade. Consider the past 10 years, for example. We have outlived Furbies, Skorts, Spice Girls and the Macarena. Puff Daddy now is P. Diddy, Napster is legal and, thankfully, no one says “Wasssssuuuuup!” on an answering machine anymore.
Yet, the Winter X Games endure.
“Endure” might not be the proper word to describe Winter X as it celebrates its 10th year of competition this week in Aspen. “Thrive” is more appropriate, or in modern vernacular perhaps, it’s “killing it.”
No one really knew what to expect when ESPN introduced the world to competitive super modified shovel racing, snow mountain biking, ice climbing and, of course, snowboarding back in 1997. The novelty of it all seemed to trump any semblance of genuine contest. But swap out shovels for snowmobiles and mountain bikes for motocross, eliminate ice climbing and add new school skiing, and Winter X has become the premier annual action sports event on everyone’s winter calendar.
“The X Games is the biggest event in snowboarding for sure,” said reigning women’s snowboard halfpipe champion Gretchen Bleiler, 24, of Aspen. “And it’s become bigger just because snowboarding is becoming more mainstream. Kids growing up now- adays want to become X Games athletes.”
Winter X drew a record 69,750 fans in Aspen last January, a 91 percent increase in attendance from when the event arrived in Aspen in 2002. The growth mirrors that of the Winter X anchor sport of snowboarding, which has escalated 213 percent among 7- to 17-year-olds in the U.S. the past decade, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. As of 2004, there were 3.3 million snowboarders in that age group, 6.6 million overall.
As the only sport included in every Winter X Games (more than a year ahead of the Olympics), snowboarding always has had a special place at the event. But it isn’t the only sport to benefit from ESPN’s action sports extravaganza.
The competition offers the biggest forum for freeskiers in halfpipe and slopestyle. Snowmobilers also have reaped the benefits of telecasts viewed by an average of 677,000 households in 2005.
Shaun White, an X Games medalist in snowboarding and skateboarding, understandings the impact of the event.
“If you think about it, where was BMX before X Games, where was skating, all these action sports?,” he said. “It really brought on this whole ‘extreme’ thing, and the image. Before X Games people were like, ‘Extreme what?’ It really kind of gave our sport a name.”
White, a Californian, grew up on the X Games. Likewise, 2004 women’s halfpipe winner Hannah Teter, 18, of Vermont quit the Brownies and took up snowboarding the year Winter X began. Now both nationally recognized riders are heading to the Turin Olympics after building lucrative careers around the X Games.
“I think it’s definitely been a big part of where I am today,” White said. “X Games is just a special event.”
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
