Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images
The 2024 Aspen X Games competition wraps up with soaring heights and history-making tricks
The 2024 Aspen X Games began on Friday, Jan. 26 with a bang, with Olympians Scotty James and Chloe Kim each cementing their superstar status on the SuperPipe with gold medals, and continued on Saturday, Jan. 27 with records being broken left and right.
Chloe Kim and her record-breaking cab 1260 (the first in women’s snowboard SuperPipe history) wasn’t the only history-making moment on those first two days of competition.
Scotty James tied Shaun White for most consecutive X Games wins, Mia Brookes landed the first 1440 in women’s X Games history in the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle event, and Troy Podmilsak pulled out an unbelievable triple cork 2160 in the Pacifico Men’s Ski Big Air.
The X Games is a three-day competition in which some of the world’s best, and most popular freestyle skiers and snowboarders are invited to compete in Slopestyle, SuperPipe, Knuckle Huck, and Big Air disciplines.
The 2024 Aspen X Games, held at Buttermilk Resort in Aspen, Colorado, concluded on Sunday, Jan. 28 with just as many jaw-dropping moments and mind-blowing tricks as Friday and Saturday.
Slopestyle combines technicality with style, with each athlete attempting to outdo each other (and themselves) in terms of progression and creativity. The Monster Energy Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle competition featured a stacked lineup of well-known names, including American Red Gerard and Canadian Mark McMorris.
McMorris has been a staple of the snowboarding community for years, paving the way for younger talent like Red Gerard to flourish in a sport that has steadily gained more mainstream media coverage and social media presence, in part due to the success of snowboarders such as McMorris, Shaun White, and Scotty James. McMorris remains to be the winningest X Games winter medalist, with 23 total medals.
McMorris and Gerard were neck-and-neck during the Slopestyle competition, with each athlete excelling in the rail section and stomping flawless tricks — Gerard with the cleanest 1800 anyone has ever seen, and McMorris with a high-flying and technically perfect 1620.
For the judges, it was a matter of “splitting hairs” — and after much deliberation, and those 1800s and 1620s, Gerard took home the gold medal, with McMorris delegated to silver, and Mons Røisland, celebrating his 27th birthday, with the bronze.
An exuberant Gerard had this to say after his nail-biting victory; “Oh man, it’s everything. I grew up watching these contests like X Games and Dew Tour and U.S. Open. To have a gold here means everything to me, and to do it with Mark McMorris, the man over there, the best snowboarder in the world, and just to land three runs, today was just perfect and I’m just so happy. I love you guys! Thank you, Aspen!”
The Samsung Galaxy Women’s Ski Slopestyle event was just as exhilarating, with France’s Tess Ledeux (the Women’s Big Air gold medalist) stunning the competition with a technically near-perfect run.
Ledeux handled the rail section with ease, before dropping a jump combination that none of the other athletes could replicate — a double cork 1260 and double cork 1440 — the first woman to land those tricks back-to-back in X Games history.
That wasn’t the only record Ledeux set. With her double gold win, she became the first skier to win double gold twice at the X Games (2022, 2024), and with her 10th medal, Ledeux tied Kelly Sildaru for most X Games women’s ski medals.
Ledeux was, understandably, beyond proud of her run, “I can’t believe I just landed my biggest and best run ever in slopestyle. I feel so grateful for everything and I’m so proud of this!”
Swiss powerhouse Mathilde Gremaud took silver, and Giulia Tanno, with her double cork 1080, took bronze. Gremaud most recently won gold at the January 2024 World Cup in Laax the week previous in her home country of Switzerland.
The Chipotle Men’s Ski SuperPipe was a sight to behold from hometown hero Alex Ferriera when he soared 17 feet, 6 inches out of the pipe. He not only reached great heights; Ferriera’s incredibly technical run consisted of four-way double cork variations and 1620s.
The Aspen native last took gold in 2020, and it was clear he was energized and looking for redemption, declaring ”I’m here for redemption…I want it!” after his first run.
After his win, Ferriera was no-less enthused, extolling how emotional and meaningful it is to find his way back to the top of the podium in Aspen, “This is the sweetest redemption I’ve ever had. It feels amazing to do this in front of my hometown of Aspen, the crowd pops off. I know all the kids in the crowd. I know a lot of the adults and I ski with them at that ski club and to feel that love to feel that they want me to succeed is unbelievable, it’s electric and energetic, it’s fantastic.”
Nico Porteous, who took a creative risk by carving up the same side of the pipe (which had never been done before) took silver, and Hunter Hess took bronze.
The final competition of the night was the Pacifico Women’s Snowboard Big Air, and what an extraordinary show it was to close out the weekend!
In recent years, Japan has become a unique powerhouse for snowboarding, with its fleet of gravity-defying riders executing incredible heights and ingenuity in every competition.
Kokomo Murase is one such snowboarder, whose 1440 triple cork landed her a whopping 19 points ahead of the rest of the field for the gold medal. Murase’s gold medal in Big Air was her third medal of the 2024 Aspen X games, following her gold medal in Knuckle Huck, and silver medal in Slopestyle.
Fellow Japanese teammate, Reira Iwabuchi took second place, with the silver medal, and longtime women’s snowboard icon and four-time X Games gold medalist Anna Gasser of Germany ended the night in third.
While the 2024 Aspen X Games has concluded, the entire weekend was a sight to behold, with soaring heights, jaw-dropping tricks, and a slew of records being broken, set, and tied.
For snowboard and freestyle skiing fans, there’s still plenty to look forward to throughout the rest of the 2024 season, with the 2024 World Cup in Mammoth Mountain set to take place this weekend.
X Games 2024 Results
Monster Energy Snowboard Slopestyle
1. Red Gerard (USA) 97.00
2. Mark McMorris (CAN) 96.00
3. Mons Røisland (NOR) 92.66
4. Sven Thorgren (SWE) 90.00
5. Rene Rinnekangas (FIN) 86.66
6. Tiarn Collins (NZL) 84.00
7. Chris Corning (USA) 77.66
8. Taiga Hasegawa (JPN) 55.66
9. Judd Henkes (USA) 47.33
10. Darcy Sharpe (CAN) 46.66
Samsung Galaxy Women’s Ski Slopestyle
1. Tess Ledeux (FRA) 95.33
2. Mathilde Gremaud (SUI) 92.33
3. Giulia Tanno (SUI) 88.00
4. Rell Harwood (USA) 84.33
5. Sarah Hoefflin (SUI) 83.66
6. Anastasia Tatalina (RUS) 81.33
7. Ruby Star Andrews
8. Olivia Asselin (CAN) 79.33
Chipotle Men’s Ski SuperPipe
1. Alex Ferreira (USA) 95.33
2. Nico Porteous (NZL) 92.66
3. Hunter Hess (USA) 92.00
4. Nick Goepper (USA) 91.33
5. Brendan MacKay (CAN) 90.66
6. Aaron Blunck (USA) 68.66
7. David Wise (USA) 64.66
8. Jon Sallinen (FIN) 23.33
Pacifico Women’s Snowboard Big Air
1. Kokomo Murase (JPN) 94.00
2. Reira Iwabuchi (JPN) 75.00
3. Anna Gasser (AUT) 71.00
4. Mia Brookes (GBR) 62.00
5. Annika Morgan (GER) 52.00
6. Jasmine Baird (CAN) 36.00
7. Laurie Blouin (CAN) 32.00
8. Miyabi Onitsuka (JPN)
