{"id":803367,"date":"2020-01-23T10:32:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/x-games-notes-parrot-rallies-back-from-cancer-gus-talks-olympics\/"},"modified":"2020-01-23T10:32:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T17:32:00","slug":"x-games-notes-parrot-rallies-back-from-cancer-gus-talks-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/x-games-notes-parrot-rallies-back-from-cancer-gus-talks-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"X Games notes: Parrot rallies back from cancer, Gus talks Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Gus Kenworthy, left, Max Parrot, Kelly Sildaru and Scotty James sit on a panel during a press conference at X Games on Wednesday, Jan. 22.<\/strong>
Kelsey Brunner \/ The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

In the lead up to X Games Aspen 2019, Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot was hit some life-changing news. The six-time gold medalist announced he had Hodgkin lymphoma, a cancer that attacks the blood cells.<\/p>\n

Just like that his season was over, and his future in doubt.<\/p>\n

A year later, Parrot is cancer free and ready for his X Games return.<\/p>\n

\u201cKnowing I wasn\u2019t there last year and knowing that I\u2019m actually here only a couple of months later after beating cancer, that still means a lot for me,\u201d Parrot said during Wednesday\u2019s introductory news conference at Buttermilk. \u201cI actually feel very strong right now. I feel healthy. I feel energetic as well. I\u2019m getting back to my normal life, which feels amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parrot is a 10-time X Games medalist, including five gold medals in big air. He also has four silver medals and Olympic silver from 2018. He\u2019ll compete this week in both big air (finals are 8 p.m. Saturday) and slopestyle (qualifying is noon Thursday) in Aspen.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first time I showed up here was a huge dream for me and I remember that as if it was yesterday,\u201d Parrot said. \u201cI already knew how much I loved it, but you get to another level of how much you love doing a sport. Now every day on my board I enjoy it as much as I can. I\u2019m just really positive about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

ANNA GASSER TRIPLE?<\/p>\n

Austria\u2019s Anna Gasser made history by becoming the first woman to land a cab triple underflip during a training session in 2018. The reigning Olympic big air gold medalist and five-time X Games medalist is thinking about bringing that trick to Aspen this week.<\/p>\n

That is, if she can get enough speed in the big air contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be a big dream of mine to show it here. It\u2019s the biggest stage to show it,\u201d Gasser said. \u201cI never thought I couldn\u2019t do it. It\u2019s been a goal of mine. Snowboarding is all about feeling and at that moment I just felt it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gasser\u2019s lone Aspen gold came in big air in 2018. She\u2019ll be a contender in both big air and slopestyle this week.<\/p>\n

GUS TALKS OLYMPICS<\/p>\n

Telluride freeskier Gus Kenworthy recently made news for saying he would now compete for Great Britain instead of the United States, especially when it comes to the 2022 Winter Olympics. His mother is from Britain and he was actually born across the pond, so therefore has the option to compete for either nation.<\/p>\n

Kenworthy, a five-time X Games medalist who competes in all three skiing disciplines, said he almost stepped up following the 2018 Olympics and the U.S.\u2019s rigorous qualifying format.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just destroyed. My body was completely wrecked,\u201d Kenworthy said. \u201cI was kind of thinking that was going to be my last Olympics and that was maybe going to be the end of me competing and ultimately just decided I have more in the tank.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kenworthy has a renewed energy \u2014 and easier route \u2014 to get back to the Olympics. Although he did say his competitive ski career will probably come to an end in the next couple of winters.<\/p>\n

\u201cSpeaking to everyone being so much younger, I remember being announced as the youngest guy at this event and I am for sure one of the oldest guys competing now in ski pipe and slope,\u201d he said. \u201cI know it definitely has a time stamp on it. I think I definitely have two more years for another Olympics and a couple more X Games and I\u2019m really excited about that.\u201d<\/p>\n

SILDARU GOES FOR TRIPLE GOLD<\/p>\n

Like Kenworthy, Estonian skier Kelly Sildaru is a three-discipline athlete. She won three medals at X Games Aspen last year in roughly 24 hours, and she\u2019ll go for it again this week. Although she admits competing in big air, slopestyle and superpipe is taxing on the body, which has already been through a lot of competitions in recent weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cDidn\u2019t have much time to rest, and now I\u2019m doing big air, slopestyle and halfpipe again,\u201d Sildaru said. \u201cSo I\u2019m feeling tired and my body is feeling quite sore. But I\u2019m trying to enjoy it as much as I can.\u201d<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gus Kenworthy, left, Max Parrot, Kelly Sildaru and Scotty James sit on a panel during a press conference at X Games on Wednesday, Jan. 22.Kelsey Brunner \/ The Aspen Times In the lead up to X Games Aspen 2019, Canadian snowboarder Max Parrot was hit some life-changing news. The six-time gold medalist announced he had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803367","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 22:44:27","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":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803367\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}