With the 2023 edition of X games just weeks away, Freestyle Snowboarder and instructor Cerys Allen names her favourite to take glory.
The winter extreme sport series sees the world’s best freestyle skiers and snowboarders invited to Buttermilk Mountain, Aspen, Colorado.
Allen believes that Austrian snowboarder Anna Gasser is one to watch in the women’s slopestyle. “Gasser is always a big prospect, she been on the scene for such a long time, she’s insane. She goes big or goes home. In last year’s edition she was trying triples. She just sent it. She didn’t care about winning, all she wanted was to land this triple.”
British snowboarder Mia Brookes has also been invited to compete in the slopestyle competition and this is what Allen had to say about her “She’s super cool, I have ridden with her from a young age and watching her come through is really awesome. I am sure she will send it.”
In the men’s slopestyle competition which takes on Sunday, January 29th believes “Mark McMorris is always awesome, he always does well. Marcus Kleveland is a big name and is pretty good too.”
Great Britain has 18-year-old Kirsty Muir who finished fifth overall in her first ever winter Olympics in the Women’s ski big air. Aleen had nothing but positives to say about the Scottish athlete. “She is mad, she is awesome, she goes for it. She has got some pretty tricks under her belt. I have been watching her training and watching her videos on Instagram, her trick bag is expanding, and I think she could do well.”
Here is some more prediction. China’s Eileen Gu who took the world by storm after her performance at last year Winter Olympics, when she became the youngest athlete to claim gold. Gu finished top spot of the podium in the Women’s ski big air, the first time the event has featured at the Olympics, landing a double cork 1620.
Gu will also compete in the slopestyle event, where she claimed a silver medal at last year Olympics.
Gu has several X games records. At the 2021 event, Gu won a bronze in big air and two golds in superpipe and slopestyle. This meant Gu was the first rookie athlete to win a gold in women’s ski superpipe, the first rookie to claim three medals and the first chinses athlete to claim gold at X Games.
