Freestyle Moto-X: Travis Pastrana won another Gold in this competition, but was it completely deserved? The judges loved that he used the course in unique ways, and he was hitting some unbelievable tricks. BUT X-Games rookie Levi Sherwood was also going huge on hits that were staring straight into the setting sun, and he altered his run throughout the competition. And yeah, Levi only lost to Pastrana by one point, but I thought my sister had a point when she said that it just seemed that the judges were favoring Pastrana a bit too much.
Keep in mind, Travis did hit the first ever double flip in freestyle competition, and if he had added that to his run he would have definitely won anyway, but it turned out he didn't need to. Travis did it anyway, but that's just Travis.
Finally, I have to say, the judges just didn't seem to have much love for Nate Adams' 360, especially considering he's still the only person doing it consistently.
Women's Super X (that's racing, FYI): Ashley Fiolek repeated her Gold Medal performance in one of the best stories to come out of X-Games in years. Besides only being 19, Ashley is also completely deaf, and has learned to ride and race using only the vibrations of the bike to tell where her opponents are. That nearly cost her the gold this year, when another racer got close to passing her, but she just didn't have enough, and ended up crashing when she pushed it too hard on the next lap.
It was also nice to see that the sideline reporter did not stick the microphone in Ashley's face, which is what happened last year.
Skateboard Vert: For the first ten minutes, this was a boring final. Shawn White got his first two big runs in, leading the pack by a distance while no one else either got anywhere near, or could stay on their board log enough to match his scores. Finally, reigning champion (and lone Canadian skater) Pierre Luc Gagnon got a huge run in, and then another, forcing White to push it for one last chance, which he fell on.
So those last five minutes were well worth the wait.
Skateboard Street: Ramos, Ryan Sheckler, and Chaz Ortiz all owned the course in the elimination rounds, then none of them were as good in the semifinals. Finally, Sheckler and Ortiz started hitting their jumps in the final, while Ramos hadn't got past the semis. Sheckler won, and was easily the best skater out there, proving what he could do all the time if he'd stop trying to act and stay healthy.
Rally and Super Rally: For reasons passing all logical understanding, the organizers changed the Rally course four times: one for warm-ups, one for qualifying, one for eliminations, and one for the finals. This led directly to numerous races being decided by a rider going off-course, which could have been eliminated had they been more intelligent when setting up the course, or by adding co-drivers to use as navigators, which is a staple in many rally competitions.
As it was this year, Rally was upstaged by Super Rally, in which four (street legal) cars had to race at once on a course so tight, it often seemed insane to attempt a pass, but they did anyway, (and even jumped nearly at the same time once), because who said rally car racers were sane? This was just awesome to watch.
Final Thought: Nice to see that Action Sports coverage and X-Games specifically continues to be the epitome when it comes to using a very attractive woman with questionable skills as a "sideline reporter" for the sake of ratings. This year, they tried out bikini model Jenn Brown, who at least got people's names right.
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That is what you call playing to your demographic of generally young males 12-24 wathcing the X-games, by putting the hot girl in charge of "interviews" because who really cares about those anyway? Other sports do this to extent, though the sideline reporters do tend to be a little bit more knowledgable (Erin Meyers at least knows what sport she is talking about, in general) and most of the women tend to do the job better than the guys who are sideline reporters anyway. Most be because guys are more likely to talk freely with the pretty girl than another dude. Anyway, I did find the story of the deaf girl a really cool one, and, in regards to Travis, I guess the stars get the calls in every sport, not just the big professional ones here in the U.S., huh? Nice to see that never changes, no matter what you are watching. And now I wish I had seen the Super Rally. It sounds like it was awesome. Oh, and do all the other skaters still hate Sheckler because of this sell out ways and his fanbase made up of generally young females?
ReplyDeleteDid you mean Erin Andrews, or is there an Erin Meyers, too?
ReplyDeleteAnd as far as I know, the only people still hating on Sheckler are that small niche group who think skating started to die when it got mainstream. None of the actual riders have any problems with him (from what I've heard) since he did earn his fame and fortune initially through his talent. It'd be like still being sore at Shawn White for doing all these magazine covers when he consistently remains one of the best snowboarders in the world.
And I did make the case for Pastrana winning: he used the course in a way no one else was, he was nailing everything, and his speed around the course helped him get more hits in. But Levi Sherwood's last run was AWESOME!
And yeah, Ashley Fiolek's story is just cool.
Yep, sorry, it was Erin Andrews I was talking about, not sure where I got Meyers from. Though I'm sure there is an Erin Meyers doing a sideline report somewhere. It sounds like a sideline reporters name...either that or a weather babe
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