Danny Davis – X Games Aspen 2015
Day Two of X Games Aspen for 2015 are now in the books. A record crowd showed up to watch Mono Skier X Final, Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding, Snowmobile Speed & Style, and Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe.
Devlin-Young take gold in Mono Skier X, and the inaugural Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding Competition. Moore Out Style the Competition for Gold in Snowmobile Speed & Style and Davis Defend His Snowboard SuperPipe Title
Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe
The gates opened to the public for the first time at X Games Aspen 2015 and a Thursday night record crowd of 16,300 poured in and were witness to some familiar faces taking medals along with some new ones.
The first gold medal of day two was handed out in Mono Skier X, which made its return in 2015 after a three-year hiatus. 53-year-old Chris Devlin-Young, who was twice the age of his youngest competitor, beat the field down the X Course to capture the crown. The oldest competitor in the X Games field, crossed the finish line before silver medalist Brandon Adam and bronze medalist Ravi Drugan. Adam also captured the silver in 2011, the last time the event was held at X Games Aspen.
Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe
The duo of Chris Klug and Henry Meece took home gold in the inaugural Special Olympics Unified Snowboarding event. Silver went to Hannah Teter and Daina Shilts and bronze to Scotty James and Zachary Elder. This first-year event saw Special Olympics athletes paired with an X Games athlete to compete in a dual giant slalom race.
Snowmobile Speed & Style was next on the docket, and in the finals, event rookie Colten Moore was able to defeat Joe Parsons 90.6 to 83.0. While Moore wasn’t as fast as his fellow competitors, his final run tricks included a K.O.D. indie flip, a seat grab flip and a combo heel clicker to superman backflip to capture gold. For the bronze medal, Cory Davis knocked off Levi LaVallee 84.3 to 50.0.
Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe
Thursday night concluded with one of the premier X Games winter events, the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe. Defending champion Danny Davis used a last run led off with a McTwist, a front side 900, backside 700, switch method cab 1080 and a front side double cork 1080 to capture gold with a score of 93.66. Davis narrowly edged out Japan’s Taku Hiraoka who scored a 92.33 for silver – the same medal he captured in last winter’s Sochi Olympics. Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov first run score of 89.00 was enough to win bronze.
On Friday, X Games Aspen 2015 will feature finals in Men’s and Women’s Snowboarder X, Snowboarder X Adaptive, America’s Navy Snowboard Big Air, Snowmobile Long Jump and the legendary Snoop Dogg will take the Sound Factory stage at 6:15 p.m. MT. Tickets for Snoop Dogg and all other musical acts can be purchased at
X Games Aspen Debuts Drones
Long a laboratory for progression of all kinds, X Games has debuted many new technologies and production enhancements through the years. This year, after working through a months-long process with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and local authorities, ESPN received approval to use cameras mounted on drones during its live coverage at X Games Aspen.
Working with Vortex Aerial, an FAA approved company, X Games is using custom built quadcopter drones (built by Vortex Aerial) over the top section of the X Course during its coverage of Snowoarder X and Snowmobile HillCross.
“It’s very exciting to be the first to use drones to provide live images for a sporting event in the U.S.,” said Chris Calcinari, Vice President of ESPN & ABC Sports Remote Production Operations, who helped lead the exploration and regulatory clearance process. “They give us an untethered camera source that can fly in any position around an athlete at high speed. It gives our production teams flexibility to deliver angles and viewpoints that have not been seen previously.”
The portion of X Course where the drones are being utilized is a controlled environment with no public access and weather conditions will also be considered.