On Saturday January 29th, the 2012 Winter X Games wrapped up in a big way. This year, the finals kicked off on the 26th in Aspen, Colorado, opening with the Women’s Ski Slopestyle event. Australian Anna Segal started the first run off with the highest score, then quickly gave it up in the second to Canadian 23 year old Kaya Turski, who ended up taking the gold with a score of 95, with USA native Devin Logan trailing closely behind with a 92.33. The next event, the Snowboard Street run was best two out of 4 accumulatively, and was very close with almost all top scores ranging around the 40’s. However, American Forest Bailey took the gold, with an impressive backside lipslide off a cargo container. During the Snowmobile Freestyle final, young Texas native Colten Moore landed back-to-back fully extended flip tricks, and an Indian Air into a super flip, giving him an easy gold. The Men’s Ski Slopestyle final ended the first day, with USA’s Tom Wallisch taking the gold from Nick Goepper with a mere 1.34 point difference.
Friday started off with the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle final, where 21 year old American Jamie Anderson stole the gold, perfectly executing almost the same astounding run as her first. In the Snowboard Big Air Final, it was a close run, but Canadian Mark McMorris took the gold, landing the first triple cork in Winter X Games. During the Women’s Snowboard Superpipe, USA’s Kelly Clark was no match for the other competitors, striking gold with a 93.66.
On the third day of the Games, the Women’s Ski Superpipe, Canadian Roz Groenewoud took the gold with only 1.66 points to spare. In the Men’s Ski Superpipe, Canadian Noah Bowman surprisingly gave USA’s David Wise a run for his money, but did not provide enough, with Wise taking the gold, with a switch double at 16 feet, a double cork 1260 at 18 feet, and getting the highest overall air of the day, at 20 feet. Taking it over to the infamous X Course, the Men’s Snowboarder X goes by a race-type run. American Nate Holland gave up an early lead, shuffling back to the pack, but saving his speed for the end, coming in way ahead of his failing competitors at 1 minute, 27.570 seconds, and taking the gold as his own. The second race on the X Course was the Women’s Snowboarder X final, where Canadian Dominique Maltais let her board ride clean through a quick takeoff, and with nearly 100 yards of a lead, took the gold with the fastest time of 1 minute, 31.614 seconds. With an ankle injury taking X Games vet Shaun White out of the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle final, Mark McMorriss took home yet another gold. At the last event of the day, the Ski Big Air final, USA’s Bobby Brown used a switch double D-spin to win the gold.
The best was definitely saved for last at the Winter 2012 X Games. On Sunday, the final day of the Games kicked off with the Men’s Skier X final, which was once again, run on the X Course. Canadian Chris Del Bosco won by .141seconds, keeping a very low body position, and easily moving ahead of the pack in perfect time to snatch the gold. At the Women’s run of the event, Norway native Marte Gjefsen took the gold with the win by a little more than a second to spare. At the Mono-Skier X final, Canadian Samson Danniels was yet another to barely get in front, making a pass on the inside, and gaining enough downhill momentum to get the gold. During the Snowmobile Best Trick Final, Heath Frisby did not even need a second run, when he almost automatically took the gold by landing the first ever frontflip on a snowmobile in X Games history.
The final event, which was saved to come full circle with the beginning of the X Games themselves, was the Men’s Snowboard Superpipe final. With 11-time X Games gold medalist Shaun White up on his feet after a slight ankle injury earlier on in the day that left him unable to compete in Slopestyle, he was ready to take the final event head on. But with Switzerland native Iouri “iPod” Podladtchikov trailing closely behind, White’s victory looked a bit touch-and-go. However, when it came down to the second run, “iPod” was no match for the skill White has possessed and shown since the age of nine. Although the numbers showed White clearly won this run, he took his victory lap (which could have just been used as an easy run), and instead, pulled off the first ever perfect score in X Games history, bringing it home for SoCal with his 12th gold medal, and a “five-peat” in the Snowboard Superpipe final.
