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 Events
broadcast live for first time
More than 250 athletes from around the world competed at
the eighth Winter X Games which opened Saturday in Aspen . For the
first time ESPN and ABC are broadcasting some events live, reaching
more than 110 million households.
Saturday's first day of competition drew over 23,000 people to Buttermilk
Mountain on the outskirts of Apsen. The event is expected to attract
50,000 visitors to Aspen and pump up to $15 million US into the
local economy. ESPN has agreed to host the X Games in Aspen until
2007 but after that "we have no plans,'' said Stiepock.
Despite a snowstorm Sunday that forced some competitions to be rescheduled
and bone-chilling cold for evening events, over 60,000 fans jammed
onto Buttermilk Mountain near Aspen for ESPN's four-day, made-for-TV
winter sports extravaganza.
"We're really pleased with the way it went off,'' said Chris Stiepock,
the X Games general manager.``The one thing you can never plan for
is mother nature. People were still coming out. We don't have the
ratings numbers yet but I think its been a spectacular event.''
Freezing spectators
ESPN's decision to broadcast some events live
left some spectators grumbling. Competitions were dragged out much
longer than needed for commercials and athlete profiles. During
superpipe qualifying Sunday night White was forced to wait more
than 10 minutes at the top of the pipe in face-freezing cold while
a basketball game ended before he was allowed to make his run.
One woman complained she spent 45 minutes shivering in the cold
and saw only three riders during Monday night's superpipe final.Stiepock
said the network must do a better job of explaining the delays to
the fans. Offering warm drinks and putting carpets on the metal
bleachers also might take some of the edge off the cold.``I would
like to try to educate people a little more and take care of them
a little more,'' he Stiepock.
 Rock
music and extreme action
The Winter X Games are like a rock concert merging with the Olympics.
The music is loud enough to rattle your teeth while athletes make
jaw-dropping, gravity-defying stunts look routine.
While the names like Shaun White, Tanner Hall, Tara Dakides and
Ross Powers may draw a blank with fans of the NHL and NFL, they
are superstars in the world of action sports. Their faces appear
in ski and snowboard magazines. Events include:
- Hillcross - an uphill battle that pits man and machine against
the mountain. It's sort of like the chariot scene from Ben-Hur as
a field of six riders play bumper cars up a steep slope filled with
stomach flipping rolls and back-jarring jumps.
- Snocross - a wild snowmobile race that is like a frozen version
of NASCAR.
- Skiercross - downhill racing with attitude. Six competitors battle
each other on a course filled with jumps, twisting turns and belly
churning rolls.
- Ultracross - a relay race where the top 16 from the skier cross
team up with the top 16 from the snowboard cross.
- Snowboarder X - snowboarder's version of skier cross.
- Snowboard slopestyle - riders navigate of course filled with rails,
stairs and jumps.
Winter X Games coming to Whistler?
The Winter X Games will return to
Aspen until 2007. After that ESPN officials will be looking for
a new site and say the Games could come to Canada with Whistler
being one of the possible locations.
The X Games got a taste of what Whistler can
offer last May when the mountain resort 120 kilometres north of
Vancouver hosted the winter half of ESPN's Global X championships.
Snowboarding events where held in Whistler while at the same time
skateboarding, in-line skating and bike competitions were staged
in San Antonio, Tex.
Other Canadian resorts have expressed an interest in hosting future
Winter X Games, including Mont Tremblant, Que., Banff, Alta., and
a property near Toronto.
Whistler, already known as one of North American's best winter resorts,
will host the skiing events plus bobsled, skeleton and luge for
the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Whistler also has been the site of
World Cup Alpine skiing, snowboard and freestyle skiing events.
Sponsors US based
One problem Stiepock sees with hosting an X Games in Canada is providing
full value to the event's U.S.-based sponsors. "We have specific
sponsors who won't be able to maximize their investment,'' he said.
``I think there's a way to get around that sponsorship thing."
Canadian Winter X Games athletes say it would be great to compete
on home turf. "It would be pretty sweet but I'm don't know where
they would do everything,'' said Mercedes Nicoll, of Whistler, who
finished seventh in the superpipe. It would be definitely good for
Whistler and it would be awesome. The X Games are known everywhere
and people would definitely come out.''
The first Extreme Games, the forerunner to the X Games, was held
in 1995. The name was changed to X Games in 1996 and the first Winter
X Games burst onto the scene in 1997. Since then the event has outgrown
past host sites like Crested Butte Mountain, Colo., and Mount Snow,
Vt.
Not before the Olympics
While the X Games could land in Whistler before 2010, Stiepock doubts
they would immediately follow the Olympics. "We love proceeding
an Olympic site but we wouldn't want to follow an Olympics,'' he
said. "The Olympics is such a massive undertaking and such a huge
template. We're not that big. We are what we are but we are not
the Olympics. Ultimately there will be comparisons and I don't think
that is fair.''
[Source: TSN.ca]
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