The Lost Sports of the Winter X-Games

THE WINTER X-GAMES WERE FANTASTIC EVERYONE. I REPEAT. THE WINTER X-GAMES WERE FANTASTIC!!!!!!!

I can’t really explain when my fascination with the X-Games started, but I can safely say I’ve never felt as strongly about snowmobile racing than I do during that one weekend.

But I’m not going to focus on the events we all know and love. Everybody’s doing that, and I am way more interested in looking at the sports that have come and gone through the illustrious history of the Winter X-Games. Prepare yourselves for some glorious feats of athleticism, and some truly shining examples of stupidity.

Skiboarding (1998-2000)- 

If you are like me, and had absolutely no idea what skiboarding was, the video above should give you a bit of an idea. Though it’s in a completely different language (and whoever put it together has some questionable choice in music), this is the type of skiboarding that was seen at X-Game events. Introduced at the second annual Winter X-Games in 1998, skiboarding is a hybrid between snowboarding, skiing, and, according to Wikipedia, skating. A 2001 report by ESPN claimed that skiboard skis were wider than regular skis, saying they were “a cross between a snowboard and a ski, and function like an in-line skate for snow.”

Typical snowblad/skiblade on the top vs. the wider skiboard that is used today. Via skiboardsonline.com

The Sloapstyle Skiboarding event required competitors to ski down a slope while using the terrain and equipment to perform different tricks on the way. Many skiboarders have said that this is the truest form of the sport, as it requires someone who can navigate slopes like a skier, but who knows how to pull off stunts like a snowboarder and inline skater. A course normally included handrails, quarter pipes, a half pipe, spines, table tops, gaps, banks, and more for the competitors to use in their tricks.

In 1999, the Slopestyle competition was traded in for the Triple Air competition. Rather than complete a course with different options for tricks, competitors needed to complete three jumps off set ramps to score their points. Not requiring a lot of actual skiing, many patriots of the sport complained that the event didn’t differentiate true talent from the inline skating posers. 1998 Slopestyle gold medallist and 1999 Triple Air silver medallist, Mike Nick said of the change, “I’m super psyched about Slopestyle, people will really be able to see what we do.”

Though ESPN obviously believed that skiboarding was gaining ground in 2000, they replaced the event with freestyle skiing in 2001. The market for skiboards began to decline, as there was no platform from which to promote the sport. Many skiboarders, including Nick, were forced to make the switch to freestyle skiing.

Snowskating (2007-???)- 

From what I can tell, snowskating was more of an exhibition event at the X-Games. FUSE Snowskate Company hosted the Warheads Snowskate Park at the 2009 Winter X-Games to introduce people to the sport and their product.

Snowskating is literally the weirdest but coolest looking thing ever. It’s a skateboard on mini skis. MINI SKIS GUYS. Though there are versions of the snowskate where the skateboard is elevated on top of a smaller snowboard, the 2009 X-Games opted for skis. FUSE claimed the four skis better mimicked the feel of a skateboard, allowing the athlete to perform classic skateboard tricks in the snow.

It also appears there were similar exhibitions in 2007 and 2011, where only the board portion of a skateboard was used. The athletes glided through the snow as if they were on a snowboard, but the board was smaller and their feet were free of any bindings.

Though it has never come into competition, from what I can tell, the X-Games organizers have made space for the sport in an open park setting. If it ever becomes more popular, who knows. We might be seeing our next young stars on the stupidest-looking skateboard ever created.

Via Shark Snowskating

HillCross (2001-2004 & 2015)- 

For those of you who love watching people on massive snowmobiles race up ski hills while navigating obstacles, this sport is for you. Though it was brought back in 2015 after over a decade’s absence, HillCross did not return for the 2016 X-Games. Athletes faced jumps, hills, and rollers on their way up to the top, while trying to avoid all the snow being propelled back at their faces if they weren’t in first place.

Levi LaVallee made his mark on the X-Games, medalling in HillCross in 2004, as well as nine other snowmobiling events from 2008 – 2014. Carl Kuster holds the record in this event, with back-to-back gold medals in 2001 and 2002, while Mike Metzger took the title in 2003. It was Camrose, AB native, Ryan Simons who took the gold in the long-awaited revival of HillCross in 2015. Despite almost falling off his ride, Simons took an early lead in the final and never looked back.

This event didn’t make an appearance in 2016, but sports come and go at the X-Games like they’re being shuffled through a revolving door. We most likely haven’t seen the last of this uphill climb.

UltraCross (2000-2005)- 

Though I can’t find any actual video of the sport, UltraCross seems like a pretty cool concept. It’s essentially the same format as Snowboard Cross or Ski Cross, but it combines the two into a relay.

Take a look at some examples of Snowboard Cross and Ski Cross to get an idea of what the sport would look like.

For UltraCross, the top 16 athletes from the Ski and Snowboard Cross events were paired together to create a team of one skier and one snowboarder who would race down the track. The event was created in 1998, and made its way around the extreme sports circuit for the next year before finding sponsorship with Red Bull and the Winter X-Games. Red Bull increased the winner’s purse from $15,000 to $30,000 in an attempt to attract big-name athletes to the event, and the race was moved back from spring to winter to ensure the athletes wouldn’t be too burned out from the season.

This event seems to be more out of fun than actual competition, as the teams were randomly drawn at a party the night before the event. In some cases, the athletes had never even met each other before competing together. Travis McLain, gold medallist in the 2000 event, was lucky to click with his partner, renowned Swedish skier Peter Lind. “I went to the (draw) party last night to pick a name and I picked Peter. I didn’t know what he looked like and they told me to just look for the brick wall with the Swedish accent,” he said.

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Though organizers had initially mixed skiers and snowboarders into the same heats, they realized in 2000 that the race would run more efficiently with each sport facing off against their own kind. Snowboarders left the gate first, and the ski gates opened once their teammate crossed the first finish line. Snowboarder, Brittany Mahanna and skier, Megan Brown took the 2000 title in the women’s race. Lind would win the event again in 2002, but snowboarder, Marco Huser and skier, Eric Andersson took the title in 2005; the last year UltraCross was a competitive event.

Snow Mountain Biking (1997-2000)- 

Okay. Here’s the deal. I can’t even stay upright on a bike on dry concrete. I often miss the pedals when I’m trying to adjust and end up face planting on the ground after winding myself on the handlebars. The fact that people willingly raced on mountain bikes (which are not meant for snow) in the winter, is the most X-Games thing to ever exist.

During the first two official years of the Winter X-Games, athletes were presented with two mountain biking events; Downhill and Speed. Downhill involved two bikers facing off in a downhill race, taking corners and little bumpers like you would see in ski slalom.  The first half of this video shows the insanity that is the Downhill Snow Mountain Biking event. If the snow is not hard and compact when the athletes are competing, it is incredibly difficult to stay upright and on the intended course.

This next video shows the Snow Mountain Biking Speed event, where crazy motherfuckers just race down a snow covered hill in order to get the fastest time. (Go to the 1:35 mark).

WHY?! Of all the sports you could participate in, you decided that racing down an icy hill on a vehicle not made for winter weather was a good idea?!? No thank you. I’ll go play jax in the corner.

From 1999-2000, the event was changed to Biker X, which I can only assume is the mountain bike version of Snowboard and Ski Cross. Don’t take my word for it. I couldn’t find any video evidence. The ESPN Winter X-Games archives state that American athletes were trying to keep up with the strong showing of Europeans by mimicking the “steeper, rockier, dangerously technical European courses.” It seems that this final version of the snow mountain biking event attempted to combine, speed, technique, and obstacles into one crazy-ass competition. I guess people finally came to their senses in 2001, as all snow mountain biking events were discontinued. KEEP TO YOUR OWN SEASON MOUNTAIN BIKERS!

Ice Climbing (1997-1999)- 

Ice Climbing is pretty self explanatory, and damn cool. Unfortunately for those of you born after 2000, you never got to see it in the X-Games. It was considered too boring and didn’t bring in a big enough audience to continue being broadcast.

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During it’s time in sun, however, Ice Climbing was broken into two categories; Speed and Difficulty. Considered the more sleep-inducing of the two, Speed Ice Climbing was discontinued in 1998. Difficulty got one more year to prove it could sit at the cool kids table, and then it too was eliminated from the competition.

New York native, Jaren Ogden was a heavyweight in Men’s Ice Climbing, taking home gold medals in Speed and Difficulty in 1997. Bird Lew mirrored his effort in the women’s division, taking home gold medals in both events. Will Gadd and Kim Csizmazia replaced the two in the following years, winning back-to-back gold medals in the Difficulty divisions, and a gold in the final year of Women’s and Men’s Speed Ice Climbing.

Will Gadd climbing Niagara Falls Ice: Via Greg Mionske/Red Bull Content Pool

Super Modified Snow Shovel Racing (1997)- 

When I saw that shovel racing was an event, I truly just thought it was people riding shovels like sleds to the end of a hill. OH HOW WRONG I WAS. While my simplified version is the shovel racing that exists today, these guys chose to alter their shovels into a sort of box car-like vehicle. They then sent these monstrosities flying down a hill with little control over speed or direction. Think I’m joking? Watch this video and revel in all its 90’s glory.

THE BAD BOY OF MODIFIED SHOVEL RACING. I SHIT YOU NOT. If it weren’t for the extreme danger this event put each competitor in, I would be unbelievably upset that it wasn’t still an X-Games feature.

You can see in that same video that each driver has created a vehicle that is more of a race car than an actual shovel. Though these modifications created faster speeds for those athletes (I use the term loosely), it also meant that the crashes were more spectacular. Watch the video if you want, but be warned, these crashes stop being funny after you realize how easily people could get hurt.

The frequency of these serious crashes was so great that the event only lasted a year in the X-Games rotation. The real clincher was the crash involving shovel racing legend, John Strader. His was the last disaster shown in the video above. For those of you who didn’t watch, his sled caught a bad angle in the snow and went flying and flipping into the side snow bank. Strader cracked his sternum, bruised his heart, broke his back in three places, and fractured his jaw and leg. After watching that video, I’m so glad it’s no longer an event. The risk of death is definitely not worth the title of World’s Best Super Modified Snow Shovel Racer.

We all know that the X-Games are bat-shit crazy, but I think we’re safe in saying that most of the events they’ve eliminated have been cut for the best. The world is easily a better place without the promotion of beer-league shovel racing. There are some things best left undiscovered.