X Games Aspen 2021 DAILY UPDATE Sunday, January 31, 2021 Issue #3 Contents Quotable ...................................................................................................................................................... 1 SNOWBOARD ............................................................................................................................................... 1 Women’s SBD SuperPipe Final ................................................................................................................. 1 Men’s Slopestyle Preview ........................................................................................................................ 3 Women’s Big Air Preview ........................................................................................................................ 5 Men’s Big Air Preview .............................................................................................................................. 6 Men’s SuperPipe Preview ........................................................................................................................ 8 SKI .............................................................................................................................................................. 10 Women’s Ski Slopestyle Final ................................................................................................................ 10 Men’s Ski Big Air Final ............................................................................................................................ 12 Men’s Ski Slopestyle Preview ................................................................................................................ 15 Knuckle Huck Preview ............................................................................................................................ 17 Quotable “I’m just pumped on riding. I’m excited to be here. If I’m feeling it, I might try to throw some new stuff.” --Shaun White to host Jack Mitrani in a Chair Chat interview earlier this week SNOWBOARD Women’s SBD SuperPipe Final Saturday, January 30, 2021 Researcher: Colin Bane Gold: Chloe Kim (USA) Silver: Maddie Mastro (USA) Bronze: Haruna Matsumoto (JPN) Kim Claims 6th SuperPipe Gold • The year off for her freshman year at Princeton University doesn’t seem to have slowed Chloe Kim much in SuperPipe. She easily won her 6th X Games gold medal on Saturday, with the highest airs and biggest tricks of the contest. She is rapidly approaching the record 7 SuperPipe gold held by her childhood idol Kelly Clark. Kim even did it with ribs injured in a Run 1 crash. She mentioned her pain in her gold medal interview and in an Instagram Stories post. • Kim has been a force in SuperPipe ever since her silver medal debut at Aspen 2014 as a 13-year-old. She won her first gold the following year at age 14. She’s now 20 and has 8 medals in 8 SuperPipe competition starts (6 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze). • She has won everything there is to win in snowboarding, in and out of X Games, and has emerged as one of the biggest names in sports, period. Reminder that she won the 2018 ESPY Awards for Best Female Athlete, Best Female Action Sports Athlete and Best Olympian, as well as a repeat for Best Female Action Sports Athlete in 2019. • Kim plans to return to her Ivy League education and other pursuits in the future, but for now we’re glad to have her back. Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe wasn’t the same without her. Silver, But No Double • A silver medal for Maddie Mastro is her best X Games finish (she also owns 1 bronze), but she still left disappointed. She aimed to bring her double crippler (she’s the only woman who has ever landed the trick in the pipe) but couldn’t put it down for the second straight year in Aspen. • Mastro had a solid safety pass in Run 1 and led the competition going into the second set of runs. The safety run was sound strategy and different from her X Games Aspen 2020 performance where she went “double crippler or bust.” It was a smart move, but she couldn’t land the double crippler in her next attempts. Another Bronze for Matsumoto • Japanese rider Haruna Matsumoto now owns 2 bronze from 3 X Games appearances, backing up her Aspen 2020 bronze with another. • She had a frontside 1080 and frontside 900 in her best pass but didn’t even try for a grab on either spin. She could be a stronger challenger in the future if she gets those grabs sorted. Format: 30-minute jam session. Best Run Counts, ranked 1-8. Gold: Chloe Kim She sent the highest air of the contest with a 15’5” method air on her very first wall of the contest. But then she crashed hard on a frontside 1080 attempt on her second wall She later posted on Instagram that she WATCH THE RUNS injured some ribs in the Run 1 slam. She seemed to recover quickly. Her Run 2 score held up for gold in a 4-run contest. Run 2: 13’ 7” method, frontside 1080 tailgrab, Cab 720 Weddle, frontside 900 tailgrab, McTwist Indy. She also had a huge (11’ 7”) Danny-Davis-inspired switch method in Run 3 that judges loved. It came on the 2nd wall of a completely different run she’d hoped to put together. Judges said Chloe’s amplitude set her apart as much as her tricks. She had the three highest measured airs of the contest (15’ 5”, 13’ 7”, 13’ 3”). Silver: Maddie She put down a solid safety pass in Run 1 (a break from her Aspen 2020 Mastro double-crippler-or-bust strategy), and it was a smart move. However, she couldn’t land the double crippler in her next attempts. Still, her best X Games result to date. Run 1: huge (12' 10”) method air fully tweaked, frontside 540 stalefish, backside 540 stalefish, frontside 720 frontside grab, Haakon flip stalefish (judges loved the stylish grab), crippler frontside grab (10' 6” average height). Bronze: Haruna Run 2 was her best pass: frontside poke with frontside grab, backside Matsumoto 540 Weddle, frontside 1080 (no grab), Cab 3 Weddle, frontside 540 melon, method, frontside 900 (no grab). The run briefly had her in silver medal position. It’s her second SuperPipe bronze in 3 attempts. 4. Kurumi Imai Run 2 was her best pass: frontside 1080 stalefish (9' 4”), Haakon flip (no grab), frontside 540 stalefish, backside 540 Weddle, frontside 900 stalefish (just barely brushed the grab), backside air melon. 5. Queralt Castellet The defending champion didn’t have the goods for the top spot. She stood in silver medal position after the first run but slid to 5th in run 2 and remained there. She had the last run of the entire contest but fell on her second wall. Run 1 was her best pass: method (11' 4”), frontside 900 melon (12” 6”), backside 540 Weddle, frontside 540 tailgrab, backside 900 Weddle. Good amplitude all the way down. 6. Ruki Tomita Run 1 was her best pass: frontside air, backside 540 Weddle, frontside 720 (no grab), Cab 720 no grab, frontside air, backside 900 (no grab). She had a weird fall at the very end of a throwaway run in her second pass. She caught an edge while not even doing a trick (and hit the back of her head). She was cleared by X Games Medical to return to the competition but fell on a backside 900 in her next two passes. 7. Brooke D’Hondt The 15-year-old didn’t spin more than 720, but she had decent amplitude and judges liked her stylish grabs in a contest that had a lot of no-grab airs and spins. Run 3 was her best pass: method (9' 10”), frontside 540 lien, backside 540 Indy, frontside 720 melon, Haakon flip (no grab), frontside stale fish, backside air Indy 8. Sonora Alba Full-pull runs from the 14-year-old, the youngest athlete at XG Aspen 2021. Run 1 was her best pass: backside air, frontside 540 frontside grab, backside 540 stalefish, frontside 360 frontside grab, Cab 540 frontside grab. Men’s Slopestyle Preview Saturday, January 30, 2021 Researcher: Colin Bane NOTE: This is a reprint from Aspen Daily Update #2. The Men’s Slopestyle Final was postponed to 1/31/2021 at 9:30 a.m. MT USA! USA! USA! • If the United States ever had a chance to end a 12 year, 14 event X Games gold medal drought in Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle, Aspen 2021 is it. The past three gold medalists -- the Canadian Slopestyle powerhouse trio of Mark McMorris (5 gold), Max Parrot (2 gold) and Darcy Sharpe (Aspen 2020 gold) -- are absent in 2021. The path to American gold in the discipline is significantly less complicated. • The last time an American won Men's SBD Slopestyle? Shaun White, with a record- setting 5th win in the discipline at...XG Aspen 2009. That's a 12-year gap, with 14 Slopestyle contests in the span! • XG Aspen 2020 bronze medalist Red Gerard, 20, ended a U.S. podium drought in the discipline dating back to 2012. Next stop? The top of the podium. And let’s not sell Gerard short: The Colorado Kid has the chops to win regardless of who’s in the field. • Gerard has been a slopestyle slayer outside of X Games, with a resume that now includes Dew Tour, U.S. Open and World Cup wins, as well as Olympic gold from the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. But he still needs X Games gold as the cherry on top. • He was rocking it in practice all week long on a course that seems almost purpose- built to suit his style (he’s an expert on the tech shark fin features). “This course is super, super, fun,” he says. “I’ve been having so much fun in practice with everybody that it’s easy to forget we’re here for a contest.” • He’s showing no signs at all that the August 2020 right knee meniscus reconstruction surgery that kept him off his board until earlier this month is slowing him down. He could be good for gold. More Americans! • Rookie Dusty Henricksen, 17, is coming in hot after a win at the 2020 FIS World Cup / U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain and a stunner of a 2nd place run at the 2020 Burton U.S. Open that included a stomped backside quadruple cork 1800 (nobody has landed a quad in a Slopestyle run at X Games). BREAKING NEWS! Henricksen won Knuckle Huck gold on Friday night, his first medal in his first X Games competition start. Can Henricksen become the first snowboarder to win two gold in a rookie appearance? • Lyon Farrell, 22, makes his sophomore appearance (14th at XG Aspen 2020) with a family legacy to live up to: his mom, Angela Cochran, won Windsurfing gold at the very first X Games in 1995.