The ESPN Winter X Games returned to Aspen, Colorado, the last weekend of January. This year marked the debut of Snowboarder X Adaptive as a medal event, to accompany the Snocross Adaptive and Mono Skier X competitions. Snowboarder X was formerly a demonstration event. Also called boardercross, the event is a side-by-side race down a slope that is designed for speed. The athletes have to jump step-ups, step-downs, tabletops, and rollers, navigate berms, and choose the best lines.
Photograph of Gabel courtesy of Ottobock, Austin, Texas.
Taking gold in Snowboarder X Adaptive was Keith Gabel, who has a transtibial amputation. Gabel represented the United States in the 2014 Sochi Paralympic Winter Games, Russia; he took bronze. He was joined on the podium by New Zealander Carl Murphy, who took silver, and Canadian Alex Massie, who claimed bronze. Murphy represented his country in the Sochi Winter Games as well; he came in fourth. Both of these competitors also have a transtibial amputation.
Snocross Adaptive is a snowmobile race that features a track with moguls, berms, and tight turns. Claiming gold, was Garrett Goodwin. Doug Henry had a horrible start, and came from last place to take silver. Jim Wazny rounded out the podium with bronze. Goodwin and Henry both have paralysis, while Wazny has a transtibial amputation. All three are repeat competitors to this event; last year, Goodwin took silver and Henry took bronze.
Mono Skier X saw Chris Devlin-Young, Brandon Adam, and Ravi Drugan on the podium taking gold, silver, and bronze, respectively. Devlin-Young is a five-time Paralympian and retired veteran; he suffers from paralysis due to an airplane crash in Alaska. Adam also is a veteran; he sustained bilateral transfemoral amputations in a roadside bomb attack in Iraq. Drugan sustained bilateral transfemoral amputations due to a train accident when he was 15 years old.
