Forget about private jets and monster homes and little dogs in sweaters. The only things that flew in Aspen last weekend were all those Winter X Games athletes, flipping and spinning in their young, virile glory.
The usual Colorado man-tide rose as the waves of X Gamers descended upon us from places such as Lake Tahoe and Whistler and Salt Lake and So Cal, where the testosterone flows like beer and manly men grow on trees. Big crowds and parties and TV cameras and concerts turned Aspen from a small upscale ski resort into, well, a big stadium.
I was at the first Winter X Games in Snow Summit, Calif., in 1997, covering the event as an editor for Transworld Snowboarding magazine. It was the heyday of snowboarding: The sport had exploded from underground to mainstream, a growth spurt the pro snowboarding community was wary of.
Even well-paid pros were anti-contest – they didn’t want their sport to sell out or become too structured and end up like ski racing. They wanted to keep it in the powder or in the pipe and park, to write their own rules. They wanted to keep it fun. At that time, the X Games felt like a consequence more than an opportunity.
That was back when events such as super modified shovel racing and speed ice climbing raised a few pierced eyebrows. Athletes and industry folk alike were skeptical about a mainstream cable network exploiting their hard-core image for profit. It was the first time there had been so many cameras and jumbo TVs and live bands and spectators in one place, like a theme park with action-sports heroes instead of roller-coaster rides.
I remember watching that first women’s slopestyle event on the bulletproof slopes of snowless Snow Summit. The course included a gap jump filled with Mountain Dew. I cringed as the competitors flew over that big, eerie, green pool and imagined what would happen if one of them fell into it. That cold, sticky, liquid trap made me think that’s where we’d all end up, drowning in a deep puddle of corporate sugar and artificial coloring.
The truth is, no one had the foresight of ESPN in recognizing the true potential of these sports or the possibility that they could be embraced by the mainstream without being severed from their alternative cultural roots.
In the end, everyone enjoyed the perks of its success, from the athletes who achieved fame and recognition beyond their wildest dreams to the spectators who (surprise!) actually appreciated the athleticism and excitement of sports that don’t include busty cheerleaders or AstroTurf. Even the most anti-establishment pro athletes caved in once they saw their mugs on that JumboTron thing or realized how famous they are in Japan.
The idea of building an event around television programming rather than the other way around was ESPN’s golden ticket. Never before had these athletes seen so many cameras. The cameras loved the athletes, too, consuming all that personality and individuality in mega bites. Mix that with high-flying action and big-stakes competition, and you’ve got the fixings for a great show for TV viewers and spectators alike.
But who would have guessed this successful action sports mega-event would land in Aspen, now the longest-running venue in Winter X Games history?
To think the same resort that banned snowboarding on one of its mountains less than five years ago would play host to that very same sport and all its masses (for seven years running, no less) is a beautiful thing. It’s like the day you grow up and stop fighting with your siblings because you realize how much it means to be from the same family.
The X Games also maintains that whole Aspen-as-Utopia philosophy, bringing in thousands of raging fans and their coolers of beer from all over the country for an all-ages action sports fest, like a four-day tailgate party but better.
The bottom line is the X Games are here to stay. The show is on, it’s live, on prime time, and it’s bigger than ever.
Aspen is proud to be home of the Winter X Games, baby. Just think, 10 years ago, X was just a drug or a weird letter at the end of the alphabet. Now, it marks the spot.
Freelance columnist Alison Berkley, who is covering the X Games for EXPN.com, can be contacted at alison@berkleymedia.com.
