The fifth annual Winter X Games at Mount Snow, Vermont, were primarily an American affair, with the odd foreigner scooping up a medal here and there. Canadian’s scooped up a total of seven medals in four events – one skier, three snowboarders, and three sled-heads.
In the women’s Skier Cross, Aleisha Cline of Kelowna took the checkered flag ahead of Magdalena Jonsson and Chiara Lawrence. The top three spots in the men’s event went to Zach Crist, Tomas Anderson, and Enak Gavaggio.
In the skier’s Big Air, 16 year old Tanner Hall of Colorado won the day, followed by Evan Raps and C.R. Johnson.
In the SnoCross – motocross on snowmobiles – Nanaimo’s Blair Morgan was the man to beat. Kent Ipsen and D.J. Eckstrom were second and third. The Hill Cross – essentially going up a snowboard cross track instead of down – had a couple Canadian’s on the podium; Carl Kuster and Vinny Clark.
In the Snowboarding Big Air, Jussi Oksanen of Finland beat out Todd Richards and Josh Dirksen, who, although he was born in Ottawa, is claimed by the Americans. In the women’s Big Air, Tara Dakides surprised nobody with the win. Barrett Christy was second, followed by Jenna Murano. Vancouver’s Leah Wagner just missed the podium with a fourth place finish.
Scott Gaffney of Calgary won the men’s Snowboard Cross by a comfortable margin over Mark Schulz and Seth Wescott. In the women’s event, Erin Simmons of Vancouver finished a close second to Line Oestevold of Norway. Amy Johnson was third. Maëlle Ricker was heading for victory but came up short on the last table-top jump. Howerver, her resulting crash probably earned her more television exposure.
The men’s slopestyle medals went to Kevin Jones, Todd Richards and Jussi Oksanen, and the women’s to Jaime MacLeod, Shannon Dunn and Marni Yamada.
In the SuperPipe comp, Shannon Dunn edged out Natasza Zurek of Vancouver and Fabienne Reutler. The men’s contest went to Dan Kass, Tommy Czeschin and Ross Powers.
