The X Games return to Aspen. Photo: ESPN Images
The X Games are back, baby. The annual showcase avoided COVID cancellations last year and is thankfully soldiering through this season. The best skiers and riders will again meet in Aspen, Colorado to duke it out and crown the steeziest men and women in skiing and snowboarding.
Due to the virtual nature of the event, coverage will focus on the stories of the athletes in the competition, and be spread across social channels, television, and the web. If you want to watch the entire cover-to-cover, three-day event, you’ll need to go to ESPN or ESPN2 with a U.S. cable television subscription, coverage begins on Friday. Those without cable, fear not! Most of Friday’s events, as well as the Men’s Big Air on Saturday, will be aired live on the X Games YouTube Channel. You can find out more about catching all the action here.
As for right now, there’s plenty to watch on the X Games website, from athlete profiles through the “Being” series, as well as event explanations from the skiers and riders themselves. The Knuckle Huck X planation with Zeb Powell (below) is my favorite.
As for athletes in the event, there’s quite an interesting lineup – Shaun White is back for the Superpipe for the first time since 2017, Zeb Powell is out with a knee injury, and Mark McMorris is out after testing positive for COVID-19. Best wishes to both of them. After a year off to do her freshman year at Princeton, Chloe Kim is back as well, looking to return to dominance in the Superpipe. Familiar faces like Henrik Harlaut, Scotty James, and Queralt Castellet, as well as up and coming athletes such as Judd Henkes round out the lineup of invited athletes.
