X GAMES MEN’S BIG AIR

Day three of X Games transpired yesterday, with only one ski event on the docket: Men’s Big Air. Following Eliminations on Friday, in which Evan McEachran, Birk Ruud, Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, Alex Hall and Christian Nummedal spun and flipped their way to finals, the five high flying freeskiers squared off against last year’s pre-qualified podium: James “Woodsy” Woods.

The contest, which consisted of a 25-minute jam format with the highest scoring left and right side tricks counting towards the competitors' total, was off the wall, with a series of never before seen tricks being tossed, at times to the bottom of the landing on the 80-foot step over.

When it was all said and done, James Woods, who has podiumed at the event for the past two years (including a gold medal performance in 2017), dumped out a gigantic left side triple cork 16 and switch right side triple cork 14 octograb to nab the bronze medal.

Just ahead of him in second was Canadian (and Olympic slopestyle bronze medalist) Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, who unleashed switch left and right side triple cork 14s of his own, one of which consisted of a mind boggling bow n’ arrow to octograb. Stay tuned for more from ABM (who’s having a hell of a year) in today’s Men’s Slopestyle Finals, along with his X Games Real Ski entry, which will be unveiled on Tuesday.

And last but not least, the Norwegian air wizard Birk Ruud made it two in a row by repeating his X Games Oslo result by scoring his second gold medal, courtesy of an enormous right side double cork 16 with two tail grabs, and a brand new trick that many in attendance considered the best of the night: a switch right side triple cork 16.

RESULTS

1) Birk Ruud - 89.00
2) Alex Beaulieu-Marchand - 87.00
3) James Woods - 82.00
4) Evan McEachran - 81.00
5) Alex Hall - 80.00
6) Henrik Harlaut - 77.00
7) Oystein Braten - 74.00
8) Christian Nummedal - 64.00

Stay tuned for one final update from here in Aspen on the final ski event of X Games, Men’s Slopestyle Finals, which kicks off at 12 p.m. MST and is sure to be a wild one. For more on the event, visit xgames.com.