X Games Gold for Harwood & Hall; Foster takes Fourth
X Games Aspen kicked off in full force today with four events - men’s and women’s ski knuckle huck, women’s snowboard big air, and men’s snowboard halfpipe. Athletes returned iconic slopes of Aspen’s Buttermilk venue for one of the biggest weekends in winter sports.
Held in a jam style format, Rell Harwood took home the gold in women’s ski knuckle huck, improving on her second place finish in the same event in 2024. Harwood impressed the judges early and jumped to the top spot with a nose butter 900. Stifel U.S. Freeski teammate Marin Hamill earned her first X Games call up and finished fifth on the day with an impressive switch 360 tail press. Tereza Korabova (CZE) took home the silver and Anni Karava (FIN) the bronze.
Alex Hall also brought home the gold in the men’s knuckle huck. Hall showed us, as always, how creative he can be. His first trick of the night was a turtle roll, which impressed the judges and the crowd. Hall’s last hit of the night was a switch right 360 bring back, cementing his sixth X Games victory and 12th X Games medal. Defending gold medalist Colby Stevenson finished just off the podium in fourth as his switch1080 tail butter to nose butter wasn’t enough to bump Matej Svancer (AUT) and Juho Saastamoinen (FIN) from the podium.
Next on deck was women’s big air and the X Games debut of the new “playoff and final” format. For all big air, slopestyle and halfpipe competition, eight competitors begin the competition with a series of preliminary runs. The field is cut in half, the scores are reset and the top-four athletes from the playoff round take two more runs, best score counts. Unable to compete this weekend due to injury, three-time X Games medalist and Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team’s own Hailey Langland took to the booth to commentate the exciting final. Austria’s Anna Gasser landed a switch triple cork 1260 to claim the gold. Japan’s Reira Iwabuchi buchi took home the silver and New Zealand’s Zoi Sadowski-Synnott the bronze.
The highly anticipated men’s superpipe final was the final event of the night and featured three American’s in the field of eight riders. Hydro Flask U.S. Snowboard Team’s Lucas Foster was the top American rider of the night, putting down his signature double ally-oop mctwist on the final hit of his first run. Foster’s first run earned him a spot in the final four and ultimately led to his best X Games finish of his carrer, ending the night just off the podium in fourth place. Joining Foster for the American’s was Okemo Mountain School’s Joey Okesson and X Games rookie Jason Wolle (USA). Wolle ended the night in seventh place and Okesson in eight, dawning a stylish leather jacket on the sub-zero degree Colorado night. Australia’s Scotty James took the win and tied American legend Shaun White’s record of total medal count in the pipe, earning his tenth medal in the discipline. The win marks James’ fourth consecutive gold, slowly creeping up on White’s record of six consecutive pipe wins and only one shy of White’s total pipe gold record of eight. Heavy hitters Yuto Totsuka and Ayumu Hirano rounded out the podium, Totsuka earning silver and Hirano the bronze.
Friday marks X Games Aspen’s biggest day of competition, featuring finals of women’s snowboard slopestyle, men’s ski slopestyle, women’s and men’s ski street style, women’s snowboard knuckle huck, women’s ski superpipe, women’s and men’sski big air and men’s snowboard knuckle huck. Live stream all the action live on Xgames.com starting at 1 p.m. ET or tune in at 10:30 p.m. ET on ESPN for primetime coverage of the first two days of action.
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