Aspen – When George Bernard Shaw declared that youth is wasted on the young, he clearly never saw the Winter X Games coming.
No one can blame him. Now in its 11th edition, Winter X launched before the advent of boardercross, skiercross, snowmobile snocross and the latest concoction to capture the collective action sports psyche, monocross. Now that they’ve discovered one another, they’re destined to grow old together.
There is an undeniable symbolism to the Winter X Games icon in the age of “cross” sports, seemingly indicative of the so-called Generation X’s refusal to cede its throne to Gen Y. When qualifying for snowboarder X gets underway this morning at 9:30 a.m., X Games veteran Shaun Palmer will attempt to separate himself from 20-year-old snowboard superpipe wunderkind Shaun White by more than just their 18-year age difference. With six gold medals apiece, the two are tied for most in X Games history.
The difference is Palmer, 38, enters the frenetic snowboarder X event as the oldest athlete in the field and the eldest among the able-bodied competitors in Winter X Eleven. Only mono-skier X racers Bill Bowness, 48, Glen Harrison, 47 and 11 months, and Chris Devlin-Young, 45, invited this season to compete in the inaugural sit-ski competition featuring some of the world’s fastest disabled athletes, can trump Palmer’s lifelines.
Reigning Olympic gold medalist White suddenly finds himself squarely in the superpipe age mix even as his 2002 gold medal predecessor, Ross Powers, is being bumped from the field for the first time in event history. Like so many other aging action sports athletes, Powers, who turns 28 next month, has shifted his focus to ‘cross competition.
“I’m kind of juggling back and forth, but I see my future going into boardercross. The pipe guys are kind of younger, and boardercross is something you can do after,” said Powers, a 21-year rider from Vermont. “Now there’s just so many good riders and so many people that are just focused on one aspect of the sport that you just have to pick what you want to do and go for it.”
Powers will have his work cut out for him in the rough-and-tumble snowboarder X competition, where even Olympic gold medalist Seth Wescott has yet to win in Aspen. It was Wescott, 30, who gave his friend Powers his first ‘cross board about nine years ago, the last time he entered an X Games boardercross competition in Crested Butte in 1998.
“I’ve done every X Games, mostly halfpipe. The first three I did halfpipe, slopestyle and boardercross, so … I’m just trying to get back into it now,” Powers said. “It’s kind of a bummer not to do pipe, but I’m psyched out here doing boardercross and I have a lot of respect for those younger (pipe) guys coming up. They have kind of a new style of riding. … I’m psyched to see Danny Davis and Shaun (White) and all those guys rule it. I’ve definitely had my good times in the halfpipe, and I’m psyched I can just stay in the sport.”
Powers’ attitude carries over to many ‘cross competitors, but certainly not all. The elder statesmen of the sport’s snowboarding version, Palmer and Wescott, recognize the opportunities established by the debut of boardercross last winter at the Turin Olympics – where the four-person races over bumps, jumps and banked slalom turns were considered the most spectacular and successful of the Games. They are in it to win it, as many times as time will allow.
“I think SBX is one of those disciplines that will favor an older generation, like downhill in ski racing, where you develop a fine touch and learn how to carry your speed with more mileage on the board,” Wescott said. “Unlike halfpipe, where these young kids keep coming in and doing more and more rotations, I don’t think the age limit has been set in snowboardcross yet. People like myself are going to be able to ride that out and see how far we can push it.”
The ski racing analogy certainly holds true at Winter X Eleven, where Aspen local Casey Puckett – a four-time Olympic ski racer at age 34 – is among the field favorites. Sport newcomer Daron Rahlves, 33, enters his first X Games after retiring from the U.S. Ski Team, where he raced speed events in three Olympics.
Like Wescott, the veteran skiers recognize the advantage of experience.
“In alpine racing, you get better with age with added strength and knowing the courses. It’s not much different with skiercross,” said Puckett. “(But) skiercross is not for everyone. I have definitely seen great alpine racers come in and not be comfortable with this scene. Things happen very fast with a lot of jumps and you are in the air a lot of the time.
“Some people are not comfortable with being in the air like that.”
Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-954-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
