{"id":21142,"date":"2020-01-27T09:40:49","date_gmt":"2020-01-27T16:40:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyhinews.com\/?p=62730"},"modified":"2020-01-28T08:10:05","modified_gmt":"2020-01-28T15:10:05","slug":"aspens-ferreira-repeats-as-x-games-ski-superpipe-champion-irving-finishes-5th","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/local-news\/aspens-ferreira-repeats-as-x-games-ski-superpipe-champion-irving-finishes-5th\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen\u2019s Ferreira repeats as X Games ski superpipe champion; Irving finishes 5th"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Alex Ferreira wins gold in the men\u2019s ski superpipe finals Sunday at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen Snowmass.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Aspen\u2019s love for Alex Ferreira doesn\u2019t go unnoticed by the 25-year-old halfpipe skier. After all, he grew up in Aspen and never hesitates to talk about how much he loves his hometown.<\/p>\n

And that is a big reason why he was so nervous to try to defend his X Games Aspen gold medal Sunday in the men\u2019s ski superpipe final at Buttermilk.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was totally more nervous because he had to defend his title and he really wanted to be there for his fans and for Aspen. He wanted to be there for Aspen,\u201d Ferreira\u2019s mother, Colleen Delia, said after the competition. \u201cThis town is so good to me and to all of us. I\u2019m just so blessed to live here. It\u2019s the most amazing town and we do have a lot of family support. It\u2019s wonderful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira achieved a lifelong dream last winter when he won his first X Games Aspen gold medal in front of his friends and family, beating two-time Olympic gold medalist David Wise in the process. Sunday\u2019s final was a duel between Ferreira and Crested Butte\u2019s Aaron Blunck, and it came down to the final run of the 30-minute jam session.<\/p>\n

The last to drop in and trailing Blunck, Ferreira could feel the weight on his shoulders.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was thinking, \u2018This is a pretty big moment and there is a lot of pressure and a lot of stress. I got to compartmentalize that and do my best.\u2019 And that\u2019s what happened,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cAbsolutely a dream come true. Couldn\u2019t have dreamt it better. I\u2019m just so grateful and thankful everyone came down and we had such an awesome event.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the final standings were announced \u2014 there are no actual scores in the overall impression scoring system implemented at X Games this year \u2014 it was Ferreira back on top where he started, followed by Blunck and bronze medalist Brendan MacKay, an X Games rookie from Canada.<\/p>\n

Blunck, 23, had only one previous X Games medal, a gold he won in 2017. He did enter as the two-time reigning world champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe skied really well tonight and it was a good battle. I was just happy to have the opportunity to compete here at X Games,\u201d Blunck said of Ferreira. \u201cIt feels amazing. I\u2019m so stoked. Everyone out here killed it tonight and this new format, it\u2019s so fun. It gives us an opportunity to be diverse, change things up and just go out and have some fun and just ski.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacKay, 22, was a surprise on the podium. Of the two Canadians in the eight-man final, X Games veteran Noah Bowman would have been the one most would expect to come away with a medal. After all, Bowman has twice been on the X Games podium, winning silver in 2012 and bronze in 2017. He was eighth Sunday.<\/p>\n

Even MacKay had a hard time believing he was bringing an X Games bronze home with him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s kind of the dream. No other way to put it,\u201d MacKay said. \u201cI knew they were better than me. So I had my work cut out for me to keep up with them because they are so crazy good at skiing. Stoked I was able to land my runs.\u201d<\/p>\n

The athletes each got four runs in the jam session, and it was Ferreira leading most of the way. That is, until Blunck delivered on his final run, highlighted by a right side double-cork 1440 that jumped him ahead of Ferreira in the standings.<\/p>\n

As the defending champion, Ferreira had the honors of being the last contestant to drop in. He had done little wrong over his previous three runs, but still trailed Blunck and needed one more good trip through the superpipe.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was solid all week. He worked out. He steamed. He ate super healthy and he meditated. He was just really chill,\u201d Delia said. \u201cI don\u2019t know, he just got in the zone and did it. I was so proud. I knew he was going to do it. I just knew. But you always have that fear. I\u2019ve been scared all week.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ferreira\u2019s final run was nearly flawless and different from last year\u2019s winning run, which included a pair of 1260s. Needing to keep up with Blunck, Ferreira pulled out his own version of the double cork 1440, a trick he said he only recently learned. He paired that with a switch double cork 1080 for his final two hits and apparently that\u2019s exactly what he needed for gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hasn\u2019t really been done that much and to be able to do it on the fourth and final run is a big deal,\u201d said Ferreira, who also gushed about the fan support at the bottom of the superpipe. \u201cIt\u2019s indescribable, because everybody wants me to win and wants me to do well and I can feel the energy, I can feel the aura and I can feel my mom and my friends and they just want me to do well and it rubs off, it really does. I\u2019m just so grateful they came out.\u201d<\/p>\n

New Zealand\u2019s Nico Porteous, last year\u2019s bronze medalist as well as the reigning Olympic bronze medalist, was fourth Sunday. Winter Park\u2019s Birk Irving, who edged out Blunck to win Friday\u2019s elimination, was fifth, while Boulder\u2019s Lyman Currier, a 2014 Olympian, was sixth. Wise, a four-time X Games Aspen gold medalist, was seventh, followed by Bowman.<\/p>\n

Ferreira said the X Games repeat gold gives him fuel for the rest of the season. He hadn\u2019t competed much this winter before Sunday, taking seventh at the Copper Grand Prix on Dec. 13 \u2014 won by Blunck \u2014 and 12th in a World Cup in China a week later, won by Bowman.<\/p>\n

With the Mammoth Grand Prix scheduled for this week and Dew Tour, which is at Copper Mountain Resort this year, scheduled for early February, Ferreira has a renewed desire to compete.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gave it my whole heart and soul and I\u2019m just grateful,\u201d Ferreira said. \u201cI didn\u2019t do well in the first two events and quite frankly I didn\u2019t really want to be at the last two events. It wasn\u2019t that much fun. And this one I want to be at. And I\u2019ve known from the past when I want to be at an event and I actually care about it, I typically tend to do pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Sky-Hi News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alex Ferreira wins gold in the men\u2019s ski superpipe finals Sunday at Buttermilk Ski Area in Aspen Snowmass.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com Aspen\u2019s love for Alex Ferreira doesn\u2019t go unnoticed by the 25-year-old halfpipe skier. After all, he grew up in Aspen and never hesitates to talk about how much he loves his hometown. And that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-21142","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 18:27:13","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21142"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21152,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21142\/revisions\/21152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21142"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21142"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21142"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}