I cannot be luckier to have Park City Mountain Resort as my home resort. – Joss Christensen
With a single-day attendance record of 48,500, Nick Goepper and Joss Christensen, two of the three Sochi slopestyle medalists who swept the podium, picked up from where they left off with Goepper getting the gold and Christensen the silver in men’s ski slopestyle at the X Games in Aspen, Colorado.
With the win, Goepper became the first male to three-peat the event since Tanner Hall.
“It is a pretty cool feeling to be able to do something that not many other skiers have accomplished in our sport,” Goepper said. “Our sport is still in its youth, so to be such a big part of its history from the Olympics to this three-peat at the X Games is such an honor. To remain consistent in slopestyle is so difficult, so it's great to have all of the hard work pay off.”
Christensen, a Park City native, continued his rise to be a consistent threat to the top of the podium, placing second in the competition and earning his first X Games medal.
“For the last two years, I have become so consistent in the way I ride and the way I compete,” Christensen said. “Coming off a disappointing performance at the Dew Tour in Breckenridge, I put a lot of focus on the X Games to make sure my riding was on point and that I always had a smile on my face. I was really nervous through qualifying, so to have it all work out for me to make it through the course clean, it's such a great feeling to put a great run down.”
While many of the athletes who compete in the X Games come to Utah to train, Christensen’s home mountain is Park City Mountain Resort, and he was asked how Park City Mountain Resort helped him get to the top.
“I cannot be luckier to have Park City Mountain Resort as my home resort,” Christensen said. “I would not be where I am today without the support from Park City Mountain Resort.”
Chloe Kim became the youngest ever in X Games history to win a medal. At 14 years of age, Kim needed her last run to best her mentor in the sport, five-time gold medalist Kelly Clark.
“I have no words to describe what this medal means to me,” Kim struggled to say through tears. “To come to this event, the pinnacle of our sport and to win, to compete with other girls that I grew up watching, I am beyond words.”
When Clark won her gold medal in Salt Lake at the 2002 Winter Olympics, Kim was 1 year old.
“I always come to the X Games to give my very best performance and to push myself,” Clark said. “To come away with the silver and to watch Chloe win the gold makes for a special night, one that I am very happy with.”
Utah resident Torah Bright placed third.
“The X Games is just fun,” Bright said. “I always come here and I leave with a smile on my face.”
In the final competition of the night, Park City native Alex Schlopy advanced to the finals of the GoPro Ski Big Air competition. After two runs, Schlopy crashed attempting his signature trick, the 1980, and exited the competition.
In the Women’s Ski Slopestyle competition, Emma Dahlstrom of Sweden took the gold, with Keri Herman and Dara Howell placing second and third respectively.