X Games Aspen 2022 Day One – Kleveland gets first gold at Buttermilk; Sadowski-Synott sets the bar
On Friday, Buttermilk Mountain welcomed back the fans with seven competitions for X Games Aspen 2022 Day One. This year in Aspen, all top three finishers were awarded medals as opposed to solely the first place winner in previous years. Another change in 2022 was that the judging was based on a cumulative total score from all runs, not just the best run.
Highlights from the X Games Aspen 2022 snowboard events include Scotty James, Marcus Kleveland, and Zoi Sadowski-Synnott all winning gold. Although Dusty Henricksen placed third at the X Games Aspen 2022 Snowboard Knuckle Huck, he performed one the craftiest tricks in his final run with a cab one tail press into a double front flip. Fan favorite and 2020 Knuckle Huck winner Zeb Powell launched himself off Luke Winkelmann in a pull jam backflip on his third run. Zeb also performed his signature coffin slide backflip to method on his last run.
Marcus Kleveland, who inspired this new Knuckle Huck event four years ago alongside Iceland legend Halldor Helgason, finished X Games Aspen 2022 Day One in first place taking his first gold for the event. Right before his last run, it seemed that Zeb was gonna take the crown but Kleveland stuck the cleanest cab 7 to cab 7 we’ll ever see on the knuckle. Kleveland is also set to compete in the Jeep Snowboard Slopestyle and Snowboard Big Air scheduled for tomorrow.
In the Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle category, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott raised the bar landing a cab 270 on the down bar with a switch boardslide pretzel out, frontside bluntslide 450 out, a switch backside 900 indy, a frontside double cork 1080 melon and a backside double cork 1080 weddle. She became the first woman to land consecutive double corks in a Slopestyle event.
Topping off X Games Aspen 2022 Day One was the Men’s SuperPipe event where Scott James reclaimed gold after finishing at second in the same event in 2021. James’ switch backside double cork 1260 weddle won his fourth X Games gold medal.
The show continues tomorrow with the Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle, Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe, and Men’s Snowboard Big Air set on the X Games Aspen 2022 schedule.