ASPEN, Colo. – Tanner Hall stole the show with a near-flawless second run to earn his third consecutive gold medal in Ski Slopestyle. But it may have been local Peter Olenick’s second-place finish that was the big story of the day.
Hall (Kalispell, Mont.) came from behind to post a 94.00 on his second, and final, run of the day and the number held up through the final six skiers of the competition and helped him become only the fourth athlete in Winter X history to three-peat in one discipline.
“Every year I want to do well and stay consistent,” Hall said. “Three golds in a row for Slopestyle … I feel very comfortable at this point.”
Carbondale’s own Olenick looked quite comfortable even though his ticket to the X Games was punched just two weeks ago at the Paul Mitchell qualifier. After a disappointing score of 17.00 on his first run, Olenick put together a spectacular final run of 93.33 to vault him into the silver spot.
“I’m so stoked I could come here and do this with my family here,” Olenick said. “I could hear them all. I’m just so stoked to be here.”
Jon Olsson (Are, SWE) pulled of a three-peat of his own with a bronze-medal finish for the third straight year which upped his career medal total to five.
Winter X Games VIII, the signature winter action sports event, features the talents of more than 250 of the world’s best action sports athletes competing in Moto X, Ski, Snowboard, Snowmobile, and UltraCross. The event is being held at Aspen/Snowmass, Colo. through January 27.
Winter X Games VIII marks the first time an X Games event will feature live telecasts of the competitions. ESPN and ABC are featuring 15 hours of original live programming January 24-27.
For the first time, SportsCenter, ESPN’s flagship daily news program, will report live from Aspen/Snowmass on Monday, January 26 and Tuesday, January 27, hosted by Linda Cohn on the 11 p.m. SportsCenter.
ESPN, The Worldwide Leader in Action Sports, first developed its X Games franchise in 1995. The 10th annual X Games will take place in Los Angeles in August.
