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Home , Anna Gasser, Big air, Bob Burnquist, Chloe Kim, Dave Mirra, Jamie Bestwick

X Games Aspen Research Update for January 22, 2021

Say What? (All quotes provided directly to researchers unless otherwise noted.)

Shaun White, on being the oldest athlete scheduled to compete at X Games Aspen 2021 (34):

“It’s surreal to be at any competition and instead of, ‘The youngest competitor, ,’ now it’s, ‘And the oldest competitor is...’ I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, did I hear that right? There’s got to be someone older! Where’d everyone go?’ It’s become new motivation that I’m the age I am, still doing it, feeling great, wanting to compete, still motivated and doing the heavy tricks.”

And snowboarder , on her expectations in Aspen:

“There is no favorite anymore. Anyone could take the win this year. And with this whole coronavirus situation, I don’t know what the other girls have been doing in training because we haven’t seen each other. Aspen is going to be this big reveal where we find out what everyone’s been doing for eight months.”

SNOWBOARD

Return of the GOAT No need to check IDs: Shaun White’s X Games career is now 21 years old. When White returns to X Games Aspen 2021, he’ll be the oldest athlete competing at the event: 34 yrs., 4 mos. Back at the turn of the century, White was the youngest overall athlete in each of his first three X Games appearances (2000-2002).

White first arrived at XG Mount a 13-year-old covered in freckles, weighing just 80 pounds. But his first X Games memory is even earlier. “You should find the footage of when I foreran the pipe at Snow Summit in 1997,” he suggests. “That was my intro to X Games. Pauly Shore was there, and they had these crazy events like shovel , downhill snow , ice wall ...it was nuts! It’s come a long way since then. It’s been a big part of my career and I’m proud to have been a part of the X Games all along.”

White hasn’t earned an X Games medal since winning at Aspen 2013, yet he remains the all-time gold medal leader in both overall and winter discipline counts. There’s also a chance that White could move up the overall X Games medal standings.

Most X Games Medals All-Time Count Last Medal Year 30 2015 24 2009 Shaun White* 23 2013 Andy Macdonald 23 2013 Pierre-Luc Gagnon 21 2015

Most X Games Gold All-Time Count Sport Shaun White* 15 13 SBD, 2 SKB 14 BMX Bob Burnquist 14 Dave Mirra 14 BMX 13 Skateboard Garrett Reynolds 13 BMX *Competing at X Games Aspen 2021

White last competed at X Games at Aspen 2017. His last medal was the aforementioned SuperPipe gold at XG Aspen 2013, but his return has everybody in the field paying attention. He’s the best to ever do it.

White owns the most X Games gold (8) and most medals (10) in the SuperPipe discipline. He won an incredible 6 straight gold in the discipline between 2008-Aspen 2013. He has similarly dominated elsewhere, with 7 Burton U.S. Open wins, 3 Olympic gold medals from 4 appearances and 6 FIS World Cup victories, among other accolades. A legitimate gold medal contender even after an eight-year X Games medal gap and two years when he hardly snowboarded at all? Yep.

The youngest gold medalist in Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe history (16), any medal at Aspen 2021 would make him the oldest to podium.

“It had been a minute,” he says of his break from . “I did the Olympics, crossed that finish line, then took a moment to myself to be with friends and family.” The moment turned into a couple of years; he didn’t get back in the pipe until March 2020, when he poached the Burton U.S. Open pipe.

“I did a little bit of riding around the U.S. Open,” White says. “Did a couple days of warmup at Mammoth and Vail because Jake had passed, and we were going to do some tribute runs for him. I was pleased to find it was still there for me. I got really excited about it again.”

• DOB: 09/03/1986. Age: 34. • Aspen 2021 will be his 25th X Games appearance. 23 medals total (15 gold, 5 silver, 3 bronze) from 37 competition starts since 2000. • White last competed at XG in 2017. “I’m excited to be snowboarding. It doesn’t really feel like coming back, it’s more of a continuation of what I’ve always done, but now with real breaks that help me find some balance in life. I’m so happy X Games stepped up and is making it happen during this crazy time in the world.” • White’s first gold medal came at X Games Aspen 2002, the first year the event was held in its now long-time home. He’ll be the only athlete at Aspen 2021 who also competed at the initial X Games Aspen.

• Now 34, he’ll be the oldest athlete competing at XG Aspen 2021. “It’s very surreal to be at any competition and instead of, ‘The youngest competitor, Shaun White,’ now it’s, ‘And the oldest competitor is...’ I’m like ‘Oh my gosh, did I hear that right? There’s got to be someone older! Where’d everyone go?’ It’s become new motivation that I’m the age I am, still doing it, feeling great, wanting to compete, still motivated and doing the heavy tricks.” • He admits to feeling his age a bit. “There’s this thing that people talk about that I never really listened to when I was younger, that it’s the creaks that get you. ‘That little back spasm is really bugging me,’ or ‘I kind of jammed my wrist yesterday.’ But for the most part, to be honest, I’m really stronger than I’ve ever been physically and mentally. I’m in a better headspace than the previous couple of years.”

• Watching win consecutive X Games gold medals in 2019 and 2020 helped motivate his return. “I’m not blind to it. I’ve definitely been keeping note. Scotty’s solid!” • On his two-year break from snowboarding: “I need that time for myself now more than ever to just take a breather. I hate saying that as advice to younger riders because that wasn’t me years ago, that’s me today. Years ago, I was like my friend Toby Miller: He’s there every single day riding or thinking about riding. I remember being in that same headspace for so long, but it doesn’t work for me anymore to motivate that way.” • Shaun has mentored Miller since 2012 and now sees the 20-year-old as a gold medal threat in Aspen. “It’s kind of like getting a baby tiger. You're like, ‘Oh my god, it’s so cute!’ And then all of a sudden it becomes a big tiger and it’s, ‘What do we do with this thing?’ I've been proud to shift into that role and be that for him when he needs it -- somebody who's been through it all. I never really thought I would be in that position.”

• Mental wellness is a new favorite topic, and he talks publicly about it on the speaking circuit and in the recent HBO documentary The Weight of Gold. “There’s so much you sacrifice as a pro athlete. I’d put things on hold, set things aside, and just assume winning would fix problems I had in my life. But success doesn’t just breed happiness. It doesn’t make your relationships with your family any better. It doesn’t make your girlfriend like you more. It doesn’t change these things. I really took a look at that part of my life and I’ve been working on myself a lot.” • “Now I understand that mental wellness is exercise. You have to work at it, like anything.” • Instagram: @shaunwhite, 1.4 million followers. That’s the biggest IG reach of any competitor at XG Aspen 2021, but quite a bit shy of his girlfriend Nina Dobrev’s 21.8 million: @nina. The actress is best known for her role on The Vampire Diaries.

Go Go Gasser Anna Gasser refused to change her mind even when she knew it could cost her. The triple underflip simply had to be done. Or so she told herself.

At Aspen 2020, all expectations -- her own, mostly -- were that she would attempt to become the first woman to land a triple in competition. And she did attempt it. And tried it again. And again. Gasser nearly landed a Cab triple underflip in her first run, sitting down gently on the landing. But she slammed hard on two of three subsequent attempts and never got it right. She showed heart and courage, but she didn’t achieve her goal.

Her last place finish in Women’s Snowboard at Aspen was a lesson learned. At X Games Norway 2020, she scrapped the idea of a triple and landed runs that better fit the jam competition format. She won her third career X Games Big Air gold.

“I had it in my that I wanted to show it, and I felt pretty ready to show it,” Gasser says of the triple at Aspen 2020. “I didn’t even want to listen that maybe the jump wasn’t right for me. It was hard for me to clear it in practice, but when I go into something with a really strong mindset like that, there’s no way for me not to try it.

“This year, I’m going to be smarter about it,” she continues. “I think I learned my lesson with those crashes. I’m only going try it if I feel good.”

Gasser has four career X Games gold even though she didn’t win her first until she was 25 yrs., 6 mos. old. She’s now six months from turning 30.

Most X Games Snowboard Gold Medals (Women) Gold Disciplines Gold Before Age 30 10 Snowboarder X 9 7 SuperPipe 6 Jamie Anderson* 6 6 Tara Dakides 5 Big Air/Slopestyle 5 * 5 SuperPipe 5 Anna Gasser* 4 Big Air/Slopestyle 4 *Competing at X Games Aspen 2021 (the 4 athletes Gasser is tied with are retired from competition).

In November 2020, Gasser returned to the Stubai, , glacier where she first landed the triple back in 2018. She landed it for a second time. “The first time I did it, it was a huge jump that you’d never see in a contest,” the Austrian says. “This jump was a more realistic size. Now I know I can rotate it fast enough to do in a competition.”

But 2020 also taught her she can win without it. She captured Big Air gold in Norway by landing four different double corks in her five attempts.

“It was a big victory. I’ve won a lot of medals, but that one meant a lot because all the girls are riding so strong now,” Gasser says. “A couple years ago, I knew if I could land my tricks I would be top three, but now it’s a tight race for those medals. In Norway, now being one of the older girls, it was such a good feeling to know that I can still get the gold.”

She’s not taking anything, or anybody, for granted in 2021. “There is no favorite anymore. Anyone could take the win this year,” she says. “And with this whole coronavirus situation, I don’t know what the other girls have been doing in training because we haven’t seen each other. Aspen is going to be this big reveal where we find out what everyone’s been doing for eight months.”

• DOB: 8/16/1991. Age: 29. • 6 medals: 3 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze in Big Air; XG Norway 2017 Slopestyle gold. • 2018 Olympic gold medalist in SBD big air. • Tied with Barrett Christy for most gold (3) and most medals (5) in Women’s Snowboard Big Air. • In 2020 she added legit backcountry experience to her resumé, filming near Jackson Hole for the Burton team video One World with riders that included X Games competitors Mark McMorris, Danny Davis, and Brock Crouch. “It was a really sick crew, and I was so worried I would hold them back, because they are all so amazing and talented. Thankfully they were all super supportive in showing me how it’s done. I’d never been on a sled before, so it was a whole process just to get to the spot! When you see a 5-second clip in a movie, you don’t know how many hours or days go into getting that clip.”

• In addition to landing her Cab triple underflip for a second time in November, Gasser says she spent her early season working on new spins in every direction. “In a normal year, if contest season starts in December, I’d rush right into doing my biggest tricks. Without that kind of pressure this year, I was focusing more on technique and rotations. I’m pretty strong in my Cab and backside rotations, but I’d never put that much time into frontside and switch backside doubles before this year. I tried to take the opportunity to build a better foundation.” • Though she’s eager to compete and travel, she says the unexpected downtime in 2020 has been good for her. “It’s been so different to be home and have family time. I bought my own apartment two years ago and then never had time to actually live in it before this year. Now I’ve been buying furniture and putting pictures up. I mostly spent all this time redecorating! But I’m starting to get the itch again. I’m really excited X Games is happening.” • Instagram: @annagassersnow. 433,000 followers, one of the biggest reaches in snowboarding.

SKI

Sildaru Eyes X Games Records Nine-time X Games medalist has prioritized school over the past two years. She’s still a medal favorite in every contest she enters.

One of two women competing in three disciplines at XG Aspen 2021 (rookie skier Eileen Gu), Sildaru kicks off her X Games journey with Big Air on Friday afternoon and ends with Slopestyle on Saturday morning (with SuperPipe in between). It’s a hectic, grueling schedule, but she faced a similar setup at Aspen 2019 and emerged with three medals.

Sildaru could set a couple of records in Aspen, and one seems almost certain to fall: most X Games medals earned as a teenager.

Most X Games Medals as a Teenager Count Breakdown Sport Medals As Teen Shaun White 9 6 gold, 3 silver SBD/SKB 2002-2006 Nyjah Huston 9 6 Gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze SKB 2009-2014 Kelly Sildaru* 9 5 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze 2016- 8 1 gold, 3 silver, 4 bronze SKB 2013-2019 Chloe Kim 7 5 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze SBD 2014-2020 Pedro Barros 7 5 gold, 2 silver SKB 2010-2014 Lyn-z Pastrana 7 3 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze SKB 2003-2009 *Current teen

With two wins at X Games Aspen 2021, Sildaru would have the most gold medals earned as a teenager. And as a reminder, she’s still just 18!

If Sildaru is affected by any potential records on the horizon, she doesn’t let it show -- she’s had her nose buried in school books. “I think school is most important for my whole life,” says Sildaru, who’s scheduled to graduate from her public high school in in spring 2021. “If I ever want to go to university, my life depends on it. I will only ski for some time, but when I’m older, I’ll need an occupation.”

Sildaru only competed at two contests during the 2019/2020 season: X Games Aspen, where she claimed Slopestyle and SuperPipe gold, and the Youth Olympic Winter Games in Leysin, SUI, where she won slopestyle.

While her competitors trotted the globe before the pandemic, she’s been mostly at home in Tallinn, where she lives with her mother, her boyfriend, Mike, and a new husky named Kira. She says it’s easier for her to study in the classroom than while traveling.

Sildaru isn’t the only woman skier who has juggled comps and school. Eileen Gu waited until she finished high school to accept her first X Games invite. Tess Ledeux, Mathilde Gremaud and Giulia Tanno also have balanced studies with skiing over the last few years. But Sildaru is the only one currently in the classroom; the rest are focused on skiing. Will that give them the edge on the Estonian?

• DOB: Feb. 17, 2002. Age 18 • 9 X Games medals in 11 competition starts across 3 Ski disciplines: Slopestyle gold at Aspen 2016, 2017, 2019, 2020. Big Air silver at Aspen 2017 and Norway 2017; bronze, Aspen 2019. SuperPipe silver at Aspen 2019, gold in 2020. • At X Games Aspen 2019, Sildaru earned three medals in 26 hours: SuperPipe silver, Slopestyle gold and Big Air bronze. She became just the second woman in history to earn three medals at one X Games. When snowboarder Jennie Waara did it in Feb. 1997, Sildaru was still 5 years from being born. • Three more medals at Aspen 2021 would tie her with Henrik Harlaut for most Ski medals in history. (Though Harlaut then will have 3 comps of his own.) • Three gold at XG Aspen 2021 would make Sildaru the first woman in XG history with 3 wins at the same X Games. Only 3 athletes have done it, and none since at XG Los Angeles 2006.

• From 2016-2019, Sildaru attended X Games with her father Tonis -- who acted as her coach despite no formal skiing background -- and her little brother Henry, who was her skiing partner. She and Henry were frequently marketed together early on in their careers and Tonis made all the decisions regarding training, travel, contests, etc. • In 2020, Sildaru attended X Games with only her mother and boyfriend. In 2021, she will be with her boyfriend, Mike, who will serve informally as her coach. Her biggest competitors in Slopestyle (Eileen Gu, Mathilde Gremaud, Tess Ledeux) all will have either private coaches or national coaches onsite.

• While Sildaru still wins slopestyle competitions easily (she finished first in qualifying at the Stubai World Cup in Nov. 2020 before pulling out of the final due to weather), she hasn’t been progressing women’s skiing like some of her competitors. • She hasn’t jumped on the doubles bandwagon yet. She is the only medal contender on either the Big Air or Slopestyle roster who doesn’t throw them. That could keep her off the Big Air podium and makes her more vulnerable in Slopestyle, although she still has the best rail chops in the field. She did finish third in big air without a double at the Kreischberg, AUT, World Cup comp in Jan. 2021. • Claims she’ll start learning doubles when she’s done with school. • Says plans for the upcoming season are fluid, but she’d like to attend the World Championships and some of the other World Cups. Says the uncertainty of the pandemic has been the hardest part for her. • Instagram: @kellysildaru (81,800 followers); YouTube Channel (4,400 subscribers, vlogs regularly).

Real Madrid Meets “Reel” Ragettli Andri Ragettli balances being a TikTok star -- he may have 2 million followers by the time you read this -- and an X Games gold medalist.

While competitive skiing initially provided Ragettli an audience on social media, it isn’t the main reason he’s become a social superstar. Instead, his creative video parts that got picked up and promoted by famed soccer club Real Madrid really put him on the map.

“I’m a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan,” says Ragettli. “In my second parkour video, I wore a Real Madrid shirt and they loved that and reposted it.”

But Real Madrid alone didn’t send him viral -- people just love his fun, inventive content. Skiers (with the exception of Gus Kenworthy) typically trail their snowboard and skateboard peers when it comes to social media influence. Not Ragettli.

Notable Social Media Reach at Aspen 2021 TikTok Instagram YouTube Andri Ragettli 1.9 million 486,000 61,900 Shaun White 293,500 1.4 million 25,000 Gus Kenworthy - 1.2 million 53,600 Mark McMorris 116,600 752,000 31,700 Chloe Kim 35,100 662,000 15,800

But oh yeah, Ragettli is also one of the best skiers in the world. In four X Games 2020 starts between Aspen and Norway, the Swiss skier earned three medals -- including Norway Slopestyle gold, his first X Games victory. He took an impressive 4th in the only comp in which he failed to medal: Aspen Slopestyle.

That was quite a turnaround for Ragettl, who began his X Games career at Aspen 2016 but failed to finish better than 5th in any of his first five competition starts. What happened in 2020?

“I was quite young at my first X Games, and I put so much pressure on it that it didn’t work,” says Ragettli, now 22. “I realized that X Games was a competition like every other, and I started focusing on myself. After winning my first gold, the pressure is now gone.”

In addition to four X Games medals (he also has Slopestyle bronze from Aspen 2018), Ragettli is a four-time Crystal Globe winner: 2016, 2018 and 2020 in slopestyle and 2019 in big air. He was also the first to land a quad cork 1800 on : March 2017, Suzuki Nine Royals, South Tyrol, Italy.

At Aspen 2021, Ragettli is slated to compete in both Big Air and Slopestyle. He’d love to earn his second Slopestyle title, but it will be a tall order. Men’s Ski Slopestyle is one of the most competitive disciplines at X Games. Of the 21 contests, only three skiers have won Slopestyle more than once, and they all did it back-to-back. If Ragettli’s going to do it, 2021 might be the year.

Multiple Ski Slopestyle Gold Gold Medals Events/Years Tanner Hall 3 2002-2004 Nick Goepper 3 Aspen 2013-2015 Oystein Braaten 2 Aspen and Norway 2017

• DOB: Aug. 21, 1998; age 22 • 4 X Games medals in 10 contest starts across 7 appearances: 1 gold, 3 bronze. Gold, Slopestyle Norway 2020. • Earned his 4 podiums in his last 5 starts. Check out his gold medal winning Slopestyle runs from Norway 2020. • At Norway 2020 Slopestyle, he said the weather was horrible but that he knew it was one of the last events for a while because of Covid, so he put everything he had into winning. He crushed the field; he logged an amazing performance that saw him lead from start to finish. He didn’t put a ski wrong all day, and the man once known more for his jumping prowess than rail skill even killed it on the jibs. Truly impressive. • Says he dreamed of winning X Games since he was 8, and it was proof that if you want it, you can achieve it. In an ecstatic interview with Jack Mitrani after taking gold, he said: “I have been dreaming about this for 12 years, and the day has finally come!”

• Learned parkour at the sports high school he attended in Engelberg, SUI. He uploaded his first video in 2016 and never thought it would go viral. He claims it got more than 60 million views on his channels, other channels and also on international TV stations. • He’s a big Cristiano Ronaldo fan. While he’s attended a Real Madrid game, he’s yet to meet Ronaldo. • Andri films his video parts with his brother, Gian, who is his creative director. His sister Christina says that the two brothers are inseparable; they go everywhere together. • Early on, Andri was inspired by TJ Schiller and Tanner Hall, then Bobby Brown. Now he gets inspiration from fellow Swiss Roger Federer and Ronaldo. King Fed recently sent him a DM and blew his mind.

• Spent the pandemic mostly at home in , SUI, training daily, filming fun bits for social and spending the evenings playing card games with his family. Says he really missed competing during the shutdown. • Ran his first ultra-marathon last spring, 62-miles from Flims to Zurich. • Skiing is in the family. Andri’s father (Gion-Martin) was a talented and well-known skier in Laax, SUI. His brother Gian is a freerider (2012 Junior World Champion for freeride). Their mom, Bea, is a passionate skier and is on the mountain every day she doesn’t work. She recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro. Sister Christina is a ski instructor in and works in marketing. She thru-hiked the Alps in four months over the 2020 summer (1,242 miles).

• Andri’s father died when he was one. Growing up with a single mom and two energetic siblings, they all did a lot of sports. Says his dad would have been so proud of his mom and how she still made everyone’s dreams happen. “We learned the hard way that life can be so short, so make the best out of it!” • Instagram: @andriragettli (480,000 followers). One last cool (as in cold!) clip. • YouTube Channel: 61,900 subscribers. Updates regularly. The frozen lake ice bath is insane, but he wears an X Games hat, so that’s cool! • TikTok: @andriragettli (1.9 million followers)