Roughly 250 of the world’s best skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers will descend upon Aspen this week, winter warriors convening for the 12th annual action sports showcase known as the X Games. There they’ll trade 1080s and 50-50s, truck drivers and tail grabs for their fair share of a $1 million prize purse, the biggest in X Games history.
The top three medalists in each event will reap 50 percent more than they pulled from the purse last year. But, for most, that’s only a small portion of the overall take.
“I don’t think you can apply a tangible dollar figure to what an X Games gold medal is worth. There are really two different worths,” X Games general manager Chris Stie- pock said. “One is the exposure level worldwide. . . . The other worth is peer reputation. When you come to Winter X and do well, . . . you leave with a better reputation than you came with, especially when you land a trick that hadn’t been landed before. You can leave Winter X granted a new status, and that type of worth is not quantifiable.”
Nor, apparently, is it predictable. Take, for example, Team Breckenridge rider Steve Fisher, reigning snowboard superpipe champion and one of only three men in history to win the marquee X Games event twice.
“Who?” you may be asking. No, he’s not a Flying Tomato.
He’s actually the guy who beat the “Flying Tomato,” Shaun White (the other two-time superpipe champ along with Breck’s Todd Richards), at his own game in Aspen last winter. Yet, when it came time for the medal ceremony, it was silver-medalist White who needed security guards to wade through the crush of fans.
The phenomenon carried over to the media tent, where the runner-up wound up getting most of the attention, and parlayed into the realm of sponsorship, the arena where action sports athletes make most of their bread.
It is White who is featured on both the front and back covers of Men’s Journal magazine this month, the feature story placing his annual income at around $10 million. Fisher, meanwhile, is still trying to figure out what he’ll be wearing at this week’s event.
“It has definitely done some good things endorsement- wise, but it’s also done nothing,” Fisher said of his upset win over the Olympic champion at Winter X last year. “I signed a pretty good deal with Rip-It energy drink and with Chevrolet, but I’m still without an outerwear sponsor, so it’s kind of a tossup.”
From a contest standpoint, Fisher, 25, maintains that the X Games are the “pinnacle of action sports competition,” which may account, to a large degree, for White’s overall achievements in the sport of snowboarding. White essentially grew up at the X Games, competing professionally at age 14 and winning his first medal at age 15.
Since then, the now 21-year-old has won a total of six gold medals, leading to the perception that he never loses.
“Shaun tends to get all the credit for snowboarding these days,” Fisher said. “I feel like the media has turned Shaun into the Tiger Woods of snowboarding, but really it’s anybody’s game any day of the week. Tiger doesn’t win every week, either.”
Fisher insists that any perceived rivalry between him and White ends as soon as the judges post their scores. And Fisher believes he has achieved the respect of his peers, something he may just value more.
Still, when the riders drop into the pipe for the X Games grand finale, Fisher could find himself dealing with more mental hurdles than most. If he doesn’t have another good outing, he faces the potential of having his 2007 victory dismissed as a fluke.
“After last year, I would say the general public is probably a little more familiar with me, even if they’re not necessarily rooting for me to win,” Fisher said. “But I don’t really even care about that anymore. I’m having a great time.”
SCHEDULE
WEDNESDAY
5:30 – 7:30 p.m. Ski superpipe men’s elimination
THURSDAY
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Snowboard superpipe women’s elimination
2 – 4 p.m. Mono skier X qualifier
7 – 7:45 p.m. Snowmobile speed and style final
7:30 – 9 p.m. Ski superpipe men’s final
FRIDAY
10 a.m. – 12 p.m. Snowboard slopestyle women’s elimination
12:30 – 2 p.m. Skier X men’s and women’s qualifier
1 – 3 p.m. Snowboard slopestyle men’s elimination
2 – 4 p.m. Mono skier X semis and consolation
5:30 – 6:30 p.m. Ski superpipe women’s final
7:30 – 8:45 p.m. SnoCross round 1
7:45 – 8:45 p.m. Snowboard superpipe women’s final
8:45 – 9:30 p.m. Ski big air final
SATURDAY
12:15 – 12:45 p.m. Snowboard slopestyle women’s final
1 – 2:30 p.m. Snowboarder X men’s and women’s finals
2:30 – 3 p.m. SnoCross round 2
2:30 – 4 p.m. Snowboard slopestyle men’s final
6:15 – 7:45 p.m. Snowboard superpipe men’s elimination
7:45 – 8:15 p.m. SnoCross final
8:15 – 9 p.m. Snowboard big air final
SUNDAY, JAN. 27
11 a.m. – 1 p.m. Ski slopestyle elimination
12 – 2 p.m. Skier X men’s and women’s finals
12:45 – 2:30 p.m. Snowmobile freestyle elimination
2:30 – 2:45 p.m. Mono skier X final
2:30 – 4 p.m. Ski slopestyle final
7 – 7:45 p.m. Snowmobile freestyle final
7:30 – 9 p.m. Snowboard superpipe men’s final
