2015 Winter X Games Highlights

Nathaniel Karbank

AHS juniors Ford McClure and Jud Hawk say hi to professional athlete and Jackass star Jason Acuña- also known as “Wee Man.”

This year’s Winter X Games brought an estimated 115,000 spectators, awarded 54 individual gold medals, medals for e-sport events, four headlining musical performances, two new 2015 Jeeps, and flooded Aspen with streams of buses- all within the span of five days.

Since 2002, Aspen has hosted the international Winter X Games event. This year was the 19th Winter X Games. That brings Aspen’s grand Winter X Games total to 14 consecutively.

Multiple artists, celebrities, and professional athletes strolled through Aspen between January 21 and January 25, including Skrillex, Snoop Dogg, Chromeo, Wiz Khalifa, local AHS alumni and professional athletes Torin Yater Wallace and Alex Ferreira, and even an appearance from the Jackass performer and professional skateboarder “Wee Man” Jason Acuña.

AHS’ Alex Ferreira won the bronze medal in Men’s Superpipe. Yater-Wallace, however, had a fall in his practice runs and decided to withdraw from the competition.

According to summitdaily.com, “ [Yater-Wallace] suffered a concussion in a practice session crash earlier this week in the halfpipe. When doctors did not clear him to compete Friday night, Yater-Wallace was forced to miss the Men’s Ski Slopestyle qualifying round at Buttermilk.”

All around, Simon d’Artois ended up taking the gold medal in Men’s Superpipe with Kevin Rolland earning silver.

The standings for Men’s Skiing Big Air played out a similar pattern from last year’s top three as Vincent Gagnier, last year’s runner up, took the gold. Silver was taken by Bobby Brown and bronze by Elias Ambühl.

However, there were a few surprises across the board this year as the record for youngest gold medal winner ever in Winter X Games history was both broken and set.

Chloe Kim, 14 year old United States snowboarder based from Torrance, California, took the gold for Women’s Superpipe. She locked in her top run at the judges score of 92, beating the silver score by a two point margin.

Highlights for AHS specifically involved the musical performances. Kennedy Quist, a sophomore, said that her highlight was “the Wiz concert- it was so great. I was front and center.”

James Kistner, also a sophomore, added that “I had a great time,” while talking about his 2015 Winter X Games experience.

Aside from a twenty three arrests and a lot of vomit, this year’s Winter X Games brought lots of good cheer and smiles to the people of Aspen and AHS alike.