ASPEN - With reality TV all the rage, the 2004 Winter X Games fitright in, and expect more real-time action next year.
The Games concluded Tuesday night at Buttermilk Mountain with alive ESPN broadcast of skiers flying through the air in the men's skisuperpipe competition.
Simon Dumont of France won the event with Jon Olsson of Swedenfinishing second and Aspen's Peter Olenick taking third. Defendingchampion Tanner Hall finished fourth. Earlier in the day, LeviLaVallee of Longville, Minn., won the snowmobile hillcross event,where snowmobiles race uphill over jumps, banks and rollers. JustinTate of Forest Lake, Minn., was second and Carl Kuster of Westlock,Canada, was third.
Organizers want to bring the X Games into the streets of Aspennext year, where motocross and snowmobile jumping events are the bestbets to move downtown. Buttermilk, about a 10-minute drive from thecenter of town, would keep most skiing and snowboarding.
For the past four days, it was hard to go anywhere here -- day ornight -- and not see the X Games on TV screens in bars, restaurants,fitness centers and hotels.
'It completely consumed the town,' said David Perry, Aspen Ski Co.senior vice president.
In a snowstorm and frigid cold -- some night sessions were held insingledigit temperatures -- spectators bundled up and showed up.Official fourday attendance was 62,200, smashing last year's 48,000.Admission was free.
Like the events of the past four days, as skiers, snowboarders,motorcyclists and snowmobilers went airborne, the Games providedirresistible images.
The Games are growing -- they will have more prize money, and willlikely add women's ski superpipe or slopestyle, as well as snowmobilejumping, next year. TV is the reason. ESPN experimented with live TVfor the first time, and it paid off.
Going into Tuesday, ratings were up 11 percent from last year.
According to event organizers, the X Games were seen by an average604,284 households over four nights, up from 533,500 in 2003.
'No question that the excitement of going live with a viewingaudience increases the presence, the power and the reality of theevent by 100 percent,' Perry said.
There were glitches. Nearly all of Sunday afternoon's programmingwas wiped out by a snow squall, forcing the network to go with mostlytaped action. Skiing bad boy Tanner Hall, commenting after winningthe slopestyle event, let slip with a profanity.
'We should all be as proud as (expletive),' he said, then coveredhis mouth before saying into the camera, 'I'm sorry.'
Funny, but ESPN didn't sanitize Hall's comment. Its three-seconddelay didn't censor the word. Neither did a rerun of the broadcastthe next day.
'In the long run, as a viewer, you see something like that, itadds to the authentic air of it all,' said Chris Stiepock, X Gamesfounder and general manager. 'I heard one of the announcers say,'That's the beauty of live television.' In a way it is. It's raw,it's natural, these athletes here are nothing if not expressive.'
In superpipe, skiers do tricks off the snowy walls of the pipe,soaring as high as 20 feet into the bright lights lining the course.Microphones placed alongside the pipe let watchers hear skis scrape,and cameras showed how high competitors jumped.
It didn't have to be live. But it made it better. Viewers didn'tknow whether skiers would crash or land in one piece.
'If I had to make a guess,' said Stiepock, 'I would say we'dcontinue to do live programming.'
Cameras seemed to be everywhere, catching athletes before theirrun, during and after. Spectators and competitors put up with breaksand delays due to TV. Orchestrated applause got equal time with thegenuine thing.
Once the lights were on, the athletes appeared to almost care moreabout putting on a good show than winning.
'It makes you worth more to your sponsors,' said Greg Tuffelmire,27, of Frisco, who competed in men's ski superpipe.
Two nights on ESPN's SportsCenter was the highlight.
'It's legitimacy,' said snowboarder Todd Richards, 34, ofEncinitas, Calif., a former Breckenridge resident.
'A lot of people still brush off our sport of snowboarding as afad thing,' he said. 'But there are a lot of us with million-dollarcontracts. You can't brush it aside anymore.
'It's there. It's in your face. It's on SportsCenter now. They'recoming after us, we're not really going after them. Times have comefull circle for sure.'
CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0259 or merijo@gazette.com
