With the first event of the 2013 global expansions completed, X Games returns to the centre stage in France with X Games Tignes, March 20-22. And as we turn our heads to see what’s going on we’ll soon see that they’ve announced the schedule and a few more riders! Want to know who? Thought so…

Snow: Mark McMorris, Iouri Podladtchikov, Louie Vit, Torstein Horgmo, Kelly Clark, Jamie Anderson, Elena Hight, Torah Bright, Shaun White and rookes Arielle Gold, Yuki Kadono and Max Parrot.

Ski: David Wise, Kevin Rolland, Thomas Krief, Anais Caradeux, Torin Yater-Wallace, Bobby Brown, Tom Wallisch, Nick Goepper, James Woods, Kaya Turski and Maddie Bowman.

All the athletes are here if you want a full list!
http://xgames.tignes.net/en/competitions/athletes-1119.html

The event will feature eight different events for men and women over three days, including Ski and Snowboard SuperPipe and Slopestyle.

Schedule highlights include:
„Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th : training
„Tuesday 19th : X Games Tignes 2013 opening press conference
„Wednesday 20th : Two Women’s finals:
- 1pm – Women’s Ski Slopestyle Final
- 6:30pm – Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe Eliminations
- 8:30pm – Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe Final

Press information February 14th 2013

„Thursday 21st :
- 1pm – Men’s Ski Slopestyle Final
- 6:30pm – Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe Final
- 8:30pm ­‐ Men’s Ski SuperPipe Eliminations
„Friday 22nd : 4 finals
- Men’s (10:30am) and Women’s (1pm) Snowboard Slopestyle Finals
- Men’s (6:30 pm) and Women’s (8 :30pm) Ski SuperPipe Finals

Are you lot ready for it?

This is something that has been up in the air for some time now. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) were meant to have come to a decision on this a while ago but kept delaying so they could have more time. That time is now up and their decision has been made. They are to include snowboard AND ski slopestyle into the Winter Olympics when it rolls around to Sochi 2014. Here’s the official word:

The IOC confirmed today the inclusion of ski slopestyle (men and women), snowboard slopestyle (men and women) and snowboard parallel special slalom (men and women) on the sports programme of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games in Sochi.

The Olympic Programme Commission (OPC) initially proposed the inclusion of the events to the EB in Acapulco in October last year. The OPC studied the proposal of the individual International Sports Federations and, at the request of the EB, compiled a detailed analysis of all candidate events at their respective world championships last winter. The decision was also based on an operational feasibility study undertaken by the organisers of the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games.

This is a huge step forward for winter sports! As the popularity grows with the general public, steps like this will only help with exposure and encourage more people to take up the sport. The BBC are already pushing for a British medal as they look to Jenny Jones and James Woods to claim something but let’s hope they don’t get too carried away like they did with Andy Murray at Wimbledon!

What are your thoughts on this though? With reports of Shaun White saying he wants to add slopestyle to his Olympic schedule, is it a sport that will be dominated by the Flying Tomato or will we see other riders shining through? It definitely opens up the field that’s for sure but is it going to harm different stops on the TTR World Tour? Many questions for a positive subject…