The Breakout Star
McMorris Thrills the Crowd and Wins Gold in Snowboard Slopestyle
Coming into his second Winter X Games, Mark McMorris had zero gold medals. When he leaves Winter X Games Aspen 2012, he will be a double gold medal winner after winning Snowboard Slopestyle on Saturday night to go along with his Big Air victory.
“I didn’t have any expectations coming in this year,” the 18-year old said. “I just wanted to ride like I can and land my tricks. That is all I come out to contests to do is to have fun and try and land the run I have in my head. That was able to happen two nights in a row and it was able to happen on a good weekend at X Games. Now I have a big smile on my face.”
That big smile came from a high score of 93.00, five points higher than the silver medalist Sage Kotsenburg.
“When you ride with the people you love to ride with it makes it so much fun. All those guys up there are my friends so it was so much fun,” McMorris added.
Kotsenburg moved into second on his final run with a score of 88.00. The Park City, Utah native said that he thrives on pressure.
“I was really bad on my first two runs,” Kotsenburg said. “So I guess I am good under pressure, which kind of helps some times.”
Finland’s Peetu Piiroinen finished third and grabbed his first Winter X Games medal in four appearances.
The Slopestyle course is approximately 1,600-feet long with six features and a vertical drop of 280-feet. Snowboarders attempt multiple tricks throughout their run on specially designed jumps, rails, boxes and other obstacles. Slopestyle is judged on creativity, trick completion and style. The competitors are ranked based on the best score of their three runs.
For Winter X Games media information, including press releases, logos and additional images from past events, log on to www.espneventmedia.com. To view medalist runs, visit the Winter X Games You Tube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/xgames and follow the X Games on Twitter at Twitter.com/xgames
Additional photos are available from ESPN Images bit.ly/WX16Pix – password: wxg16
WINTER X GAMES ASPEN 2012
Winter X Games Aspen 2012 returns to Aspen/Snowmass, Colo., January 26-29, 2012, with live coverage on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC. This year marks the 11th consecutive year the event is being held in Aspen and features more than 200 of the world’s best athletes in the sports of Skiing, Snowboarding and Snowmobile. In addition to 16 hours of live programing on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, more than nine hours of Winter X Games Aspen content will be offered on ESPN3 and 25 hours on ESPN 3D.
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Contacts: Danny Chi, ESPN, 310-642-1509, danny.c.chi@espn.com
Katie Moses-Swope, ESPN, 303-290-7888, katie.moses-swope@espn.com
Alex Rozis, ESPN, 310-642-1533, alex.a.rozis@espn.com
Grace Coryell, ESPN, 310-642-1519, grace.s.coryell@espn.com