Chloe Kim

Alright, we switched from our laptop to streaming it on our TV and yep, the pop-up ads are still pretty annoying. But I guess with no ESPN slot until later tonight for the men’s knuckle huck, this is the new way to watch X Games. The women’s Superpipe final was the opposite of a star-studded final, but the four rookies put on a show and Chloe Kim did what Chloe Kim does. Bea Kim is going to be a force to reckon with soon, and she is making it very enjoyable to watch on her way there. Berenice Wicki is also pretty wild to watch in the pipe, and just missed the podium behind the vets. Missing Maddie Mastro and last year’s gold medalist Gaon Choi due to both sustaining injuries in LAAX last week, Mistuki Ono and Xuetong Cai picked up the slack with some exciting runs, but Chloe put down a cab 10 in her first run and was in the driver’s seat for the remainder of the contest. It was her first Winter X Games since taking gold in Beijing, and it was another par for the course final for the phenom. Scrub through the video find the full finals go down, but we can save you some time. Everyone fell on their second run, and Chloe won. Brooke D’Hondt landed her third and final run but could not crack the podium, rounded out by Mitsuki Ono in second and Xuetong in third.

Seems like injury took out a lot of competitors on the women’s side this year (slope as well), which strengthens the argument to bring back qualifiers and a larger invite list. Straight to finals might make for good TV, but if we are going to a majority of these contests being streamed and not squeezed between NBA games, why not give more riders a chance throughout the week to earn a spot and a potential at X Games gold? Hopefully, that is coming from the new owners of the storied event soon. Keep an eye out for more from X Games TONIGHT. It is just day one but we still have knuckle huck and the men’s SuperPipe final as well.