Tuesday, January 30, 2007

   Top 7 Moments of Winter X Games 11
Listening to: "Welcome to the Black Parade" - My Chemical Romance

Right now, I'm too tired to list out 11 so I picked my top 7 moments, 7 being the number of years I've watched the Winter X Games. Maybe I'll expand the list on my Xanga.

1. Win for the Aussie and French ladies. - Australian Torah Bright wins the women's Snowboard Superpipe Gold, and the women's Skier X podium was all about France. (As much crap the French deserve sometimes, they have some darn good skiers.)
2. Shaun White not at the top? - Well that's a surprise, but even the best of the best in snowboarding have their off days. Not to mention a bronze in Slopestyle and a silver in Superpipe, ain't bad.
3. Double gold for Andreas Wiig - only athlete to do so, and he definitely deserved it, going huge in Snowboard Best Trick and Slopestyle.
4. Cross Carnage- In almost every Skier X round, somebody wiped out and got hurt. In Boarder X, Lindsey Jacobellis was experiencing a bit of Olympic deja vu, crashing on the last stretch of the race giving the lead to someone else.
5. Debut of Mono X- These guys and gal don't let amputations or paralysis hold them back. They're the stuff heroes are made of.
6. New Event: Freestyle Snowmobiling- I think I found my new favorite winter sport. It's like freestyle motocross but w/ snowmobiles, which weigh twice as much. The finals introduced us to crazy guys like Chris Burandt (who won) and a new distance backflip record (106' by Aleksander Nordgaard).
7. Return of the Old Schoolers- Even w/ the batch of teenagers cropping up, the guys who were there in the beginning showed everybody how it's done. The "Dark Lord of everything 'cross'" Shaun Palmer made a return to extend his record for most golds at Winter X (6), and while that didn't happen, it's good to see the 38-year-old back. Then, Candide Thouvex, who at 24 was the oldest competitor in Ski Slopestyle, gets the highest score ever (95.0). It's hard to believe that he won the 1st Ski Big Air contest, back when I had started tuning in. Finally, Steve Fisher, who won gold in Snowboard Superpipe in '04, beat out the Olympians and young guns, shouting "I'm back!"

Quote of the day:
"I found myself going backwards and I was thinking, 'Uh-oh...gotta do some tricks." - Steve Fisher on why his 2nd run was so different from his 1st.
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