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People who have lived in or near a snowy area have probably tried some sort of winter sport. It could be anything from skiing, to snowboarding, to using a snowmobile. Well, those who found that to be fun, the XGames is the perfect event to attend to watch experts of these sports compete to prove that they are the best.
But for the sake of this article, we will be looking over snowboarding in particular, as it is the cornerstone of the event. For snowboarders competing, the events to compete in are the superpipe, big air, slopestyle, and the rail jam. Most of those who have signed up will enter all events for a chance to win gold.
There weren’t many underdogs in this year’s event, as most of the competitors have been to this event before. Some of the big names were Toby Miller, Scotty James, and Taylor Gold.
Other more famous boarders such as Shawn White, Chloe Kim, and Hannah Teeter, sat this competition out and let some of the fresher competitors make their names even bigger. Many of the younger boarders used this opportunity to display their skills without having to worry about being outshined by someone like White. However, this be no means that the younger competitors can’t hold a candle to the legends.
Scotty James is a perfect example of this. He has been competing since 2013 and has won 3 gold medals, one silver, and one bronze. He has also competed in the Olympics 3 times, medaling in one of them. As for this season, he pulled out a gold medal in the superpipe against boarders like Yuto Totsuka, whose game is second to James.
This year’s XGames was made into a bigger event than the previous ones, as it was the first since the loss of Jake Burton, who pioneered snowboarding by designing a variety of boards and he himself coming up with some tricks of his own. Snowboarders around the world who watched the XGames mourned the loss of Burton, but this loss will only fuel the fire of people around the world who have a passion for the sport.