SNOWMOBILE SPEED & STYLE
Final: 7-7:45 p.m. Thursday
The new event will rank as a top draw for the Midwestern thumb-throttlers. Slednecks will go head-to-head around the course, nailing airs and tricks in timed race. Kremmling’s Chris Burandt can back-flip his machine in his sleep and is looking to defend his freestyle gold.
OE’s dark horse: While Burandt is virtually unstoppable, Minnesota’s 2004 X gold medalist Levi LaVallee doesn’t hold anything back. If he stays on his Polaris, he wins.
SKI SUPERPIPE
Men’s final: 7-9 p.m. Thursday
Women’s final: 5:30-6:30 p.m. Friday
Tanner Hall is back and gunning for his seventh X gold. But he will have to contend with Maine native Simon Dumont’s NASA-registered 1260s and local boy Peter Olenick’s double flip. Sammy Carlson, Andreas Hatveit, Matt Philippi, Mike Riddle and Colby West have spent years chasing Hall and Dumont.
OE’s dark horse: Youngest and wee-est, high-flying Kiwi Jossi Wells has the chops to find the podium this year. At 17, he’s got a big future in a sport where 24 means geezer.
Finally, a women’s pipe contest with more than five skiers. It’s taken awhile, but this year’s roster of 12 skiers marks an X Games highpoint. Norway’s Grete Eliassen and Canadian Sarah Burke dominate this show, but Park City, Utah, aerialist Jen “Whodat” Hudak and Connecticut’s Jess Cumming are on fire this season.
OE’s dark horse: Watch for Swiss skier Mirjam Jaeger to take home some bling.
SNOWBOARD SUPERPIPE, WOMEN
Final: 7:45-8:45 p.m. Friday
Again this year, this is anybody’s game. Homegirl Gretchen Bleiler took silver last year and hasn’t won since 2003. But there are 20 women in the show this year, including the big Olympic players Hannah Teter, Kelly Clark, Molly Aguirre and Lindsey Jacobellis. Watch for those typical yet impressive back-to-back 720s to become 900s this year while the 900s become 1080s.
OE’s dark horse: Gotta go with Clair Bidez. The Minturn globetrotter is healthy this year and has the spins to take it all.
SKI BIG AIR
Final: 8:45-9:30 p.m. Friday
Four fliers: French Canuck Charles Gagnier, Sweden superstar Jon Olsson, Simon Dumont and Swede Jacob Wester. The winner is picked by live text voting and announcers covering the action. Back by popular demand, the big air contests showcase how far skiing has come since the neon heydays of the daffy backscratcher.
OE’s dark horse: There is nothing more beautiful than Olsson’s Kangaroo flip.
SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE, WOMEN
Final: 12:15-12:45 p.m. Saturday
Jammin’ Jamie Anderson’s backside 360 was unrivaled last year and the 17-year-old from Tahoe will up the spins this year.
OE’s dark horse: Boarding pioneer Tara Dakides. She’s grizzled and hungry, ready to beat back the new wave of upstarts.
SNOWBOARDER X
Men’s and women’s final: 1-2:30 p.m. Saturday
Ten-year boardercross veteran Nate Holland is back to defend his gold and perennial contender Xavier de le Rue is conspicuously absent, leaving the field open. Olympian Seth Wescott will win if he finds his hole, but holes on the X course are fleeting.
OE’s dark horse: The old man of boarding, the legendary Shaun Palmer, is staging a comeback at age 39 that will resonate forever.
Little Joanie Anderson can squeeze through the tiniest openings, a technique that led her to gold last year. The Tahoe boarder is back this year. But so is Lindsey Jacobellis, who is strong and hungry to show the world she doesn’t always tumble.
OE’s dark horse: Jordan Karlinski, the Aspen teen who just missed the podium last year, is even smaller than Anderson and knows how to find her shot.
SNOWBOARD SLOPESTYLE, MEN
Final: 2:30-4 p.m. Saturday
Andreas Wiig, the 26-year-old Norwegian who upset Shaun White’s bid for his fifth X gold, will bring a new set of stunts. And if Wyoming powder crusher Travis Rice can stick his monumental airs, he will find his golden X.
OE’s dark horse: Watch out for boarding’s sultan of steeze, Marc Frank Montoya. The Denver native once stole cars to get to the hills.
SNOCROSS
Final: 7:45-8:15 p.m. Saturday
Last year it was all Tucker Hibbert. Already this year he’s taken two golds at contests in Minnesota. But Blair Morgan, the world’s top snocross racer and winner of five X Games snocross gold medals, is back after failing to make the finals last year.
OE’s dark horse: Canadian Ryan Simons led early in last year’s finals and finished a few seconds behind teammate Hibbert.
SNOWBOARD BIG AIR
Final: 8:15-9 p.m. Saturday
Wyoming’s Travis Rice is considered by many to be the best to ever board. His tricks — honed in the steep and deep, not the park — are supernatural.
OE’s dark horse: Andreas Wiig. This year the event is under the lights and Wiig’s got tricks.
SKIER X
Men’s and women’s final: 12-2 p.m. Sunday
Last year, Daron Rahlves dismissed the notion that whoever grabs the lead wins by finishing first in every qualifying race despite flailing out the gate. Aspen veteran Casey Puckett, probably the best American skiercross racer, took gold last year in an airborne finish. He’s got the strategy — and sharp elbows — needed to do it again this year.
The Euro women own skier X and that is not likely to change with 16 of the 21 racers this year hailing from Europe.
OE’s dark horse: Rahlves. He scored his first skiercross gold last month in Telluride and seems to have tackled his starting gate blues.
MONO X
Final: 2:30-2:45 p.m. Sunday
This race will feature the most breathtaking crashes of X, just as it did in the debut last year and the Games’ 2005 test run. Paralympian Tyler Walker of New Hampshire will be aiming for an X medal three-peat, but Chris Devlin-Young will be on hand to unseat his former pupil.
OE’s dark horse: Sam Ferguson. The Aspenite goes huge in the backcountry and has piloted his customized sit-ski down the fearsome Highlands Bowl.
SKI SLOPESTYLE
Final: 2:30-4 p.m. Sunday
Skiing’s favorite flying Frenchman, the pompom-capped Candide Thovex, took the gold last year as the event’s oldest competitor, a veritable grandpa at 24. The comp this year is stacked with the world’s best tricky skiers: Peter Olenick, Jon Olsson, Colby West, Simon Dumont and Jacob Wester.
OE’s dark horse: Olenick. The Carbondale party king can bust the biggest and most innovative flips in the game.
SNOWBOARD SUPERPIPE, MEN
Final: 7:30-9 p.m. Sunday
The marquis showdown to close the circus. They save the biggest for last at X, with Olympic medalist-turned-multimillionaire magazine coverboy Shaun White captaining the show. Last year, Breckenridge’s Steve Fisher ejected White from his throne with buttery smooth airs. Danny Kass, Danny Davis, Kevin Pearce and Andy Finch know this is their time.
OE’s dark horse: Fisher will keep his crown.
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374 or jblevins@denverpost.com
