2001 X-Games: Extreme winter games draw thousands to Mount Snow

By Christopher Pilkington
Norwich Guidon Asst. Sports Editor

The air was full of twists, flips and grabs Feb. 1-4 at Mt. Snow, Vt., while the snow was full of stomping feet, solid landings and, of course, crash landings. The Winter X-Games were held at Mt. Snow for the second year in the five-year existence of the games.

They began on Thursday, Feb. 1, and lasted until Sunday, Feb. 4.

The success of the 2000 Winter X-Games at Mt. Snow, which had an estimated audience upwards of 80,000 spectators, inspired ESPN to hold the games at the same venue this year, hoping for an even larger crowd.

The promoters were not disappointed; the spectators turned out in record numbers this year to see events such as Skiing Big Air, Skier X, Snowboarder X, SnoCross (Snowmobiling), Slopestyle, UltraCross, Snowboarding Big Air, Superpipe, Hillcross (Snowmobiling), and newly introduced to the Winter X-Games this year was the dirt bike Big Air contest.

At the X-Games, spectators get to see the practices as well as the actual prelims and final competitions. In the practices the athletes try to master tricks. It is astonishing to see when they land their tricks, and at times horrifying when they do not.

"The X-Games is first and foremost a celebration of the athletes that have made this event possible," according to The Guide, a booklet given to spectators."It is a celebration of the eye-popping athleticism and the coming of a new age of sports that thrive not entirely on competition, but creativity, determination and internal strength as well."

The athleticism at the X-Games is unlike any other sport. As competitive as all the athletes are, the people who compete against each other day in and day out cheer loudly and happily for their competitors.

These athletes "love to ride, to ski, to race, to huck themselves off enormous jumps - and they love to cheer on their rivals competing beside them," according to The Guide.

The main event over the past five years of the X-Games has undoubtedly been the four snowboarding events offered.

The biggest snowboarding event at the games would be the Superpipe, where athletes board down a halfpipe, trying to pull off the most technical series of tricks to beat out their rivals.

Each rider gets three runs to put together their best combination of tricks and are judged on Amplitude (height), Execution (style, originality, variety), Difficulty and Landings. Dan Kass and Shannon Dunn took home X-Games gold in the Superpipe competition, while a favorite, Vermont native Ross Powers, took home the bronze.

The Big Air and the Slopestyle contests are also big crowd favorites. In the Big Air competition, athletes get three runs in which they hit a jump and pull off a trick that will hopefully put them ahead of their competitors.

The Big Air competition is similar to the Superpipe, except that competitors only get one jump per run instead of multiple jumps.

The Slopestyle competition offers rails, picnic tables, and mailboxes, items not normally found on a mountainside. The athletes are scored just like in the other snowboarding events, with the addition of the course being factored in.

The last snowboarding event is another that gathers a large crowd because of its course excitement.

Snowboarder X is an event where contact between competitors is legal, though the contact which is allowed is very minimal.

Another Vermont native, Jamie MacLeod, made the home crowd feel proud by bringing home the gold in the Women's Slopestlye competition.

The X-Games also includes skiing events; although they are not as popular as the snowboarding event, they are just as entertaining and amazing to watch.

The two events which are in the games for skiers include the Skier X and the Skier Big Air contests. These two contests are scored the same as the similar snowboarding events.

Sixteen-year-old Tanner Hall took home the gold medal in the Big Air contest on Thursday afternoon.

The Ultracross event is one which was introduced for the first time in last year's Winter X-Games and was very successful. This event is a relay race with a snowboarder and a skier on each team.

The snowboarders run the course first, and as they cross over the finish line their skiing partner is let loose from the starting gates back at the top of the course.

The teams are selected by random draw, so there is no domination by two people who are the fastest in their sport.

Shaun Palmer and Hirroomi Takizawa won the gold medal in the UltraCross event, giving Japan the first medal in X-Games history.

New to the 2001 X-Games was a summer event played out on the snow: Moto X Big Air. This event was expected to draw a large crowd, and it did just that.

"The object is to go as big as humanly possible, pull a death-defying trick mid-air, and land with ease on the other side," according to The Guide.

The men on dirt bikes gathered one of the largest crowds at the X-Games. Favorite Mike Jones received the gold medal in the first ever Moto X competition at the Winter X-Games this year.

The largest crowd by far gathered at the SnoCross event. Nearly 9,000 fans packed in wherever they could get a view of the course to see these snowmobiles race around the specially laid out track.

The favorite, Tucker Hibbert, who won the gold last year at the games, dominated the field with his superior skills on the course. Tucker, who is from Goodridge, Minn., does not even have a driver's license; he is only 15 years old.

Unfortunately, during the SnoCross finals Tucker lost control of his sled in midair and had to bail, landing very hard in the snow and suffering some deep bruises.

Cruising on to the easy gold under a yellow flag after Tucker's incident was Blair Morgan.

The biggest surprise of the X-Games is the reality of how young the athletes who compete are. In each event there are kids as young as 15 and 16 competing, such as Elijah Teter, who is 16 from Belmont, Vt. This was his first X-Games in the Superpipe competition. Tanner Hall, who is 16, from Kalispell, Mont., won the gold medal for the skiing Big Air competition in his second X-Games.

The youngest athlete at the games was Shaun White, 14, competing in the Slopestyle and Superpipe competitions.

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