Sheamus Dalton
Sports Editor
While most of Colorado’s sports fans were preparing to see their Denver Broncos in the upcoming Super Bowl, there was a select group of Coloradans who were focused on something entirely else over the weekend. The thrill-seekers, the daredevils and all those who harbor an irrational desire for adrenaline-filled experiences met in Aspen, Colo. for the 2014 Winter X Games.
Unlike any other event, the Winter X Games take the traditional winter sports many of us enjoy at our local ski resorts and supercharge them. Bunny slopes are replaced with quad diamonds, 90-foot kicker jumps are added and a few backflipping snowmobiles are thrown in. Across the Buttermilk Mountain, 16 men’s and women’s events took place in disciplines such as snowboard superpipe and snowmobile long jump.
Last week, the X Games created some memorable moments. Tucker Hibbert won his seventh straight snocross gold and Danny Davis won his first gold in superpipe.
However, nothing during the five days seemed to match Colton Moore’s emotional performance in snowmobile freestyle, only one year after his brother Caleb Moore died in a tragic crash during the 2013 Winter X Games in the same event.
“This is the greatest moment ever, to be able to come back and ride for my brother,” said Moore in an interview with ESPN.
“And not just for him, but with him, because I know he was out here with me all night. To be able to come out here and get gold is unbelievable. I just give it all to him. I know he was the one helping me do everything I was doing.”
Many of the athletes who competed in this year’s Winter X Games are now on to Sochi, Russia for the Winter Olympics. While this may be considered a bigger stage on a global scale, it will be a tall order to match the action, emotion and glory of Moore and many like him at this winter’s X Games.