After some questionable judging in run one (even McMorris was surprised at his high score placing him in first) a classic duel broke out between the best of the best resulting in a Sunday slopestyle final worthy of sharing airtime with the NFL Conference Championships. And while the mics kept cutting out and the stream froze a few times, X Games had a little drama and a ton of landed runs in the men’s final finishing with Red Gerard earning his first slope gold medal at X by just one point. A glimmer of hope for Cleveland fans who suffered an embarrassing loss in the NFL earlier this month.
Maybe the early scoring was perfect to set up to keep the whole thing pretty entertaining, down to the last drop where if McMorris landed an 18, he probably would have won. And to be honest, if history has taught us anything, he normally does. An instant classic between the first time gold medalist from Ohio and the most decorated winter X Games medalist of all time. Watch the full replay for yourself, Mons Roisland was consistently killing it, Sven Thorgren came out swinging, and Tiarn Collins spent his summer vacation spinning 18s in Colorado. There is one final event to close out our yearly focus on Aspen, Women’s Big Air. Tune back in tonight and enjoy.