Silverthorne’s Red Gerard returns to X Games seeking more gold
X Games runs Thursday through Saturday at Buttermilk

Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
Summit County snowboarder Red Gerard won Olympic slopestyle gold in 2018, elevating him to superstar status. The now 24-year-old rider followed it up with a bucket-list feat last winter, when he finally won gold at X Games in Aspen during the slopestyle event, his eighth attempt.
“Just try to figure out what I did last year, I guess?” he said of his plan for this year. “It was massive for me last year. Something I’d been wanting for a while and to have it happen was epic. This year, I’m just trying to repeat that and do similar things, and I feel like I hopefully have one of the stronger runs, but it’s definitely a big challenge out there. Ever year, it gets crazier, and I’m just happy to get invited back every year.”
Men’s snowboard slopestyle will kickoff Saturday’s events at 11:15 a.m. Readers can watch the event live at XGames.com.
The roster includes many heavy hitters, such as Canada’s Mark McMorris and Norway’s Marcus Kleveland, among others. Unlike many of his slopestyle peers, Gerard typically does not compete in big air.

30 years of thrill
Three decades ago, at a Planet Hollywood in New York City, ESPN announced the creation of the “Extreme Games,” with the first event held in the summer of 1995 in Rhode Island.
Winter X Games made its debut in 1997 at California’s Snow Summit Mountain Resort before moving to Crested Butte for 1998-99. It headed to Vermont’s Mount Snow for 2000-01.
“My first X Games was in 1999 in Crested Butte, Colorado, where I got to be a sideline reporter for snowboarding,” longtime X Games host Selema Masekela said Wednesday during a press conference for X Games Aspen 2025 at Buttermilk Ski Area.

“That experience in Crested Butte was a life-changer for me. … I never thought that the world outside of snowboarding would care about action sports, and suddenly, we were on ESPN and ABC and global,” he continued. “What an incredible journey it has been. I’ve had the privilege and honor of literally watching generations of the best athletes in action sports come and make their mark.”
With 30 years of weight behind its name, X Games returned Thursday and runs through Saturday. Buttermilk has hosted Winter X Games since 2002, allowing the city of Aspen to become as much a part of the brand’s story as any athlete.
While Aspen’s future as an X Games host remains unknown — nothing has been solidified past this winter — new X Games CEO Jeremy Bloom reaffirmed on Wednesday that he plans to prioritize Aspen in the upcoming negotiations. X Games wants to move to an eight-city tour — four summer and four winter — beginning in 2026, with numerous cities already having submitted bids to host.
“Think about all the kids around the world who know Aspen because of X Games. We want to stay here. We want to figure it out,” said Bloom, a former Olympic freestyle skier who also was a standout football player at the University of Colorado.
“I have such a deep love and admiration for these sports, and I understand what these athletes go through,” he continued. “I understand the struggle. I know how hard it is. I know how much they care. And unless you’ve sort of gone through that, it’s really hard to understand how important this event is and how important these moments are.”

With negotiations ongoing regarding Aspen’s future with X Games, Wednesday’s press conference meant this year’s event is ready to go full send.
The contests are being live streamed exclusively via The Roku Channel, with both ESPN and ABC also televising much of the action. Tickets are required to attend in-person at Buttermilk, with X Games saying all tickets had been sold out prior to Thursday.
Knuckle huck wows the crowd

X Games Aspen 2025 opened with knuckle huck competitions on a cold Thursday evening under the lights at Buttermilk Ski Area. Leading the eight-women field was Rell Harwood of Park City, Utah, last year’s silver medalist. Alex Hall, another Park City product, was the men’s gold medalist.
Run in a 20-minute jam format, with as many runs as time permits, knuckle huck is judged on style and finesse, creativity, originality, and overall impression. Competitors use the “knuckle” of the bottom jump of the slopestyle course as the platform for their tricks.
“I pop off my nose and I do two-and-a-half spins and I land a switch,” she said in describing her favorite of the four runs. “It’s really fun to do.”
Her “butters” — where a skier puts pressure on tips of their skis, the tails then come off the ground, allowing them to spin on the tip of their skis — were strong.
Tereza Korabova from the Czech Republic won silver with creative runs that featured a nose butter 360 and a hand drag with a flip. The women’s bronze X Games medal went to Anni Karava from Finland, whose second run featured a massive 720.
Karava said she had few expectations.

“I just went into it to have fun, and that’s what I did,” she said. “This is just so sick.”
In winning his 12th X Games medal – six of which are gold — Hall put on a style clinic, executing a switch move with a hand movement that his coach Hunter Hess dubbed a “turtle roll slide.” Hall, who is competing in four events this weekend, followed that with a huge 1080.
“I really liked my last trick just because I went big and it was scary, but I landed, so it was fun,” he said.
Finishing second was Matej Svancer from Austria.
“I felt more nervous because I’ve never done any of the four tricks today,” he said.
Near the end of the men’s knuckle huck jam session, Juho Saastamoinen from Finland moved into third, cementing his podium finish with a unique ballet skiing move.
Scotty vs. Japan

The legacy of Scotty James seems to grow each year, even though his star power can’t get much brighter. The same can be said for his riding, which always seems to improve despite him being a 30-year-old with a 6-foot frame that gravity isn’t always fond of.
On Thursday night, the first day of X Games Aspen 2025, the Australian added to his fame by completing a four-peat in the men’s snowboard halfpipe final at Buttermilk Ski Area.
“I’m feeling unbelievable. A four-peat — I couldn’t have dreamt of this, so I’m absolutely stoked,” James said after. “To be here in Aspen is the best, always.”

This was the seventh X Games Aspen gold medal for James, who is also on the board of directors for the action sports franchise. He won his first gold in 2017 before going back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. He was second to Japan’s Yuto Totsuka in 2021 but hasn’t moved from the top step of the podium since again winning gold in 2022, and each year since.
This was not the first four-peat in superpipe history, as the legendary Shaun White won six straight from 2008-2013.
Part of James’ winning run on Thursday was the feared triple cork, a challenging trick that requires three head-over-heels rotations in the air. Japan’s Ayumu Hirano made a name for himself for his triple corks at the 2022 Olympics, which he won over James and Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer, but the rest of the field has slowly caught up since Beijing.
“I knew that I just had to go for it if I wanted to win, and that was my mindset,” James said. “I just said, ‘You know what, either crash or win.’ That was my mentality, and fortunately, we got it done.”

X Games debuted a new format on Thursday, with eight riders being given two runs during a “playoff” and the top four placers moved to the two-run finals. And that finals field was stacked, with James, Hirano, Totsuka, and Telluride’s own Lucas Foster making it in.
James did what he needed to on his first run of finals and was able to drop in for a victory lap on his second. His 96.33 held off Totsuka’s 93.66 and Hirano’s 92.33, both scored on their second runs. Foster wasn’t able to put down a clean run in finals and just missed the podium in fourth.
All four riders will likely return next week for the World Cup and Grand Prix at Buttermilk.
For James, it was also his first X Games since the birth of his first child, Leo, in October.
“It’s unbelievable,” he said. “Leo is probably at home having a sleep. He doesn’t care at all. He just wants mom at the moment. But I love being a dad, and being at the top of the podium is absolutely surreal.”
This story is from AspenTimes.com.

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