The first day of the X Games is a time to shake off jitters, test the waters and strategize. Most athletes save the big show for the final, not qualifiers.
Except for Gretchen Bleiler. The Aspen boarder threw a huge frontside 900 in her first run of qualifying for the women’s snowboard superpipe, earning the top spot heading into tonight’s event and smashing any whispers the Olympic silver medalist was suffering from an Olympic hangover.
Only her rival and pal, Hannah Teter of Vermont, joined her in the spinning realm of 900s, promising a big showdown. The other 18 women sweated through backside 540s, big grab 360s and straight airs in the battle for the 10 spots in the final.
Veteran Kelly Clark snuck into the final with a big second run after a rare fall in her first spin down the pipe. Newcomer Elena Hight of South Lake Tahoe, Calif., surprised many with flawless and supersized airs, earning her second seed in the final.
Bleiler’s return to the bright X lights – she sat out last year’s X Games to save herself for the Olympics – was hardly halfhearted. Her first of two runs featured a frontside 540 into a smooth frontside 900 followed by a backside 540. Her large stomps and buttery smooth style earned her an 88.1, and an easy ride into the final.
Snowmobile freestyle
The 10 throttle-thumbed men took it easy Wednesday night, testing the snowmobile freestyle course. They didn’t flip their 500-pound machines. A few tried simple grabs while flaying straight and true over the series of 45-foot to 100-foot jumps.
In tonight’s elimination round, the 10 received two 75-second runs and the top four will advance to Sunday night’s single-elimination final. The iron-thumbed athletes will be judged on execution, number of tricks, landings and style in a course that allows for each rider to pull out a full arsenal of tricks.
Older better
Aspen’s Casey Puckett hasn’t lost a skiercross race since last year’s X Games, and he’s hungry for more X bling. The skiercross king, 34, isn’t afraid of the young talent on his heels, but he knows there is no lock in a skiercross race.
“The favorite doesn’t always win,” he said. “I’m not coming in here thinking I’m all that. I’m just doing everything I can to keep the streak alive.”
Even with its recent inclusion in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics, skiercross remains an old racer’s sport. Where the age in pipe skews toward the teens, the average age in skiercross is the mid-30s. It’s a rare X sport where age and experience weighs more than fearlessness and bravado.
“The longer you do it, you keep getting better. I don’t know the young guys have a prayer right now,” said Puckett, a four-time Olympic alpine racer. “It’s almost unfair the amount of years we have competed already. We have all competed in Olympics and racing World Cup. Serious training that we all have in our back pocket. The young kids don’t have that. Eventually they will, but for now, this is an older guys sport.”
All out at X
Kristi Leskinen, one of the first women skiers to excel in the pipe, went down hard at last weekend’s U.S. Freeskiing Open and watched the pipe final from the sideline. The Pennsylvania skier has been nursing a battered body for the past few days, hoping to shine at Friday’s final. The X Games are the biggest show of the year, and she’s not going to let bruises slow her down.
“The Open is a whole other animal from the X Games,” she said. “You come into the X Games and you put it all on the line. The X Games are the end all. At the Open, you throw your safety run, and here you pull out all the stops.”
X Games schedule
AT ASPEN
THURSDAY
8-9:45 a.m. – Skiing SuperPipe men’s and women’s practice
9-11 a.m. – Snowmobile freestyle practice
9 a.m.-noon – Skier X Men’s and Women’s practice
9 a.m.-noon – Snowboard slopestyle men’s and women’s practice
10 a.m.-noon – Skiing SuperPipe men’s elimination
Noon-3 p.m. – Snowboarder X men’s and women’s practice
12:30-2:30 p.m. – Snowmobile SnoCross practice
12:30-4 p.m. – Skiing slopestyle practice
4:30-6 p.m. – Snowboard SuperPipe men’s practice
4:30-6 p.m. – Snowmobile freestyle practice
6-7:15 p.m. – Snowboard SuperPipe women’s practice
6:30-8 p.m. – Snowmobile freestyle elimination
7:30-9 p.m. – Snowboard SuperPipe women’s final
