The X Games are an annual extreme sports event organised, produced and broadcast by ESPN. Coverage is also shown on ESPN's sister network, ABC. The inaugural X Games were held during the summer of 1995 in Providence and Newport, Rhode Island, United States. Participants compete to win bronze, silver, and gold medals, as well as prize money.
Sarah Jean Burke was a Canadian freestyle skier who was a pioneer of the superpipe event. She was a five-time Winter X Games gold medallist, and won the world championship in the halfpipe in 2005. She successfully lobbied the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the event added to the Olympic program for the 2014 Winter Olympics. She was considered a medal favourite in the event. Burke died following a training accident in Utah in 2012.
Justine Dufour-Lapointe is a Canadian freestyle skier. She was the Olympic champion in the moguls event at the 2014 Winter Olympics and won a silver medal in moguls at the 2018 Winter Olympics. The gold and silver she and her sister Chloe Dufour-Lapointe won in 2014 was the first time that Canadian sisters stood together on the podium, and the fourth time ever by all nations. In winning the Olympics, she became the youngest freestyle skiing Olympic champion ever at nineteen years of age. Dufour-Lapointe was the FIS World Cup rookie of the year for the 2010–11 season. Dufour-Lapointe was the world champion in moguls at the 2015 World Championships has also won a silver and two other bronze medals in the moguls event at the Freestyle World Ski Championships.
Rosalind Groenewoud is a Canadian freeskier. She is the 2011 FIS World Champion in halfpipe, Groenewoud is also a 2012 Winter X Games champion x 2 and has 3 silver and two bronze medals from X Games competitions in halfpipe. She won the AFP Overall Championship in 2009 & 2010 and AFP Halfpipe Overall Ranking in 2012. She is the first woman to design her own pro-model freestyle ski with the female owned ski company Coalition Snow.
Maddison Michelle "Maddie" Bowman is an American former freestyle skier. She won a silver medal in the superpipe at Winter X Games XVI in 2012.
Noah Bowman is a Canadian freestyle skier. He won a silver medal in the superpipe at Winter X Games XVI.
Half-pipe skiing is the sport of riding snow skis on a half-pipe. Competitors perform a series of tricks while going down the pipe. The current world record for highest jump in a half-pipe is held by Joffrey Pollet-Villard, with 26 feet 3 inches. The sport is considered to be dangerous compared to other sports, and helmets are required to be worn during competitions. Half-pipe skiing has been part of the Winter X Games since 2002, and made its Olympic debut at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. David Wise of the United States of America became the first Olympic champion in this discipline with a total of 92.00 points.
Arielle Townsend Gold is an American Olympic medalist snowboarder.
Ayumu Hirano is a Japanese three-time Olympic medalist snowboarder and Olympic skateboarder. He won the silver medal in the superpipe in 2013 Winter X Games XVII at the age of 14, becoming the youngest medalist in X Games history, and won silver medals in the half-pipe at both the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang and the gold medal at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. He also competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo as a skateboarder, becoming the only athlete, who participated in all of the three consecutive Olympic Games in East Asia between 2018 and 2022.
Chloe Kim is an American snowboarder and two-time Olympic gold medalist. At the 2018 Winter Olympics, she became the youngest woman to win an Olympic snowboarding gold medal when she won gold in the women's snowboard halfpipe at 17 years old.
Aaron Blunck is an American freestyle skier from Crested Butte, Colorado.
Alex Ferreira is an American halfpipe skier. He competed in the 2018 Winter Olympic Games taking home the silver medal. He competed in the 2019 Winter X Games XXIII and 2020 Winter X Games XXIV, placing first in the Men's Ski Superpipe.
Cassie Sharpe is a Canadian freestyle skier. Sharpe is the reigning Olympic champion in women's halfpipe after winning gold in Pyeongchang, South Korea at the 2018 Winter Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2015 World Championships in halfpipe in Kreischberg and has won gold and bronze in superpipe at the Winter X Games in 2016 and 2018 respectively.
Nico Porteous is a New Zealand freestyle skier. He is New Zealand's youngest Olympic Games medallist, having won a bronze medal at the 2018 Winter Olympics at the age of 16.
Rachael Karker is a Canadian freestyle skier.
Canada is competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics. The 2022 Winter Olympics are being held in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022. Canada has competed at all 24 editions of the Winter Olympics.
Eileen Feng Gu, also known by her Chinese name Gu Ailing, is a freestyle skier, Olympic gold medalist, and model. She has competed for China in halfpipe, slopestyle, and big air events since 2019. Gu competed for the United States at the 2018–19 FIS Freestyle Ski World Cup.
Hungary is competing at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Ireland is scheduled to compete at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, from 4 to 20 February 2022.
Brendan Mackay is a Canadian freestyle skier who competes internationally in the half-pipe discipline.
