
The Big Air event is one of the highlights of X Games Aspen year after year. Riders compete on a 75-foot jump with eight men and eight women attempting to nail the best trick. After three runs with only the best score counting, four riders from each field move onto the finals. There, each athlete has two runs and the single highest score wins.
Skiers are judged on aggressive execution of maneuvers, degree of difficulty and variety of tricks, originality and style.
After Matej Svancer’s world first, he decided to dedicate his second run to the people by landing a huge switch front flip, letting his previous 96.33 stand as his final score. Next, Luca Harrington hucked a perfectly capped tail grab triple cork 2160, solidifying his silver medal with a 97. Then, Troy Podmilsak put it all on the line for gold, trying to one-up Miro’s 2340 by adding another flip, but he couldn’t hold on to the landing, cementing Miro Tabanelli as the X-Games Gold Medalist. This also meant that Matej Svancer took home the bronze.
This event was a huge progression in the world of competitive skiing, with nearly every competitor pushing the limits of what was thought possible on a pair of skis. It’s also important to mention that all of the medal winners are under the age of 21, which means we have bright youth to lead the world of freeskiing, and we already can’t wait for Big Air 2026.