Wise Wins Fifth X Games Gold
David Wise won X Games gold to close out the 2023 X Games in Aspen, Colo. Wise, who has competed in over 14 X Games, is once again walking away from the event with another gold medal in his bag. Under the lights of Buttermilk Mountain, the men's SuperPipe was the last event of the busy X Games schedule. With tens of thousands of fans surrounding the 22-foot-tall halfpipe, U.S. Freeski Team athletes Wise, Birk Irving, Alex Ferreira and Aaron Blunk put on a show.
With four chances to land a perfect run, it was anyone's game. Through the first run, Wise landed all his tricks and was showing serious amplitude and creativity. Next up was hometown favorite Alex Ferreira. Uncharacteristically of Ferreira, he hit the deck of the pipe on his last hit and fell while attempting his left double cork 1620. After a minute or so on the ground, he skied down safely. But on the second run, it happened again and he eventually pulled out of the contest. Ferreira now focuses on the next contest at Mammoth Mountain.
Irving, who is coming away from a second place the week before in Calgary, Canada showed the crowd he was ready to go big. With a clean double flat spin 720 in the middle of his run and ending with a left dub 1440, Irving ended up in second place, securing an X Games silver medal. The night before, his sister, Svea Irving, won X Games bronze in the women's ski SuperPipe - closing out a successful weekend for the Irving siblings.
Aaron Blunk, known by the X Games community as the only skier to throw five doubles in all four directions in his run in 2022, went big. On Blunk's last trip through the pipe, it looked like he was in the right position to knock Jon Sallinen out of third place but just came up short, ending the night in fourth place.
But the night was ultimately won by Wise. Wise is now a five-time X Games gold medalist, having won the event in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2018 and now 2023. Wise, whose run included a switch right 900 tail, switch left double cork 1080 japan, a right 900 tail and finished with mirror back-to-back dub 12 mutes, he had enough to secure the first place position.
Now, the U.S. Freeski and Snowboard Teams are in Mammoth Mountain for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Grand Prix.
