By Rose Graner
Entertainment Editor
The upcoming Winter 2011 X-Games provide an opportunity to reflect upon the true nature of large-scale sporting competitions.
The reason they are so popular is ultimately based on who competes and what competitions are featured. The sports featured are notoriously “lowbrow” ones.
No one could argue that “Snowboard Superpipe” (essentially a giant half-pipe constructed out of snow upon which tricks are performed) or “Snowmobile: Speed” (exactly what it sounds like) are as classically respected athletic ventures as polevaulting and the like.
In this sense, the X-Games strike a blow in favor of the common man. As inspirational and impressive as professional sporting events and the athletes who compete in them are, there is no question that it is personally validating to witness groups of true athletes compete purely for personal enjoyment rather than material gain.
The X-Games as an institution are of high relevance to Los Angeles residents; our weather enables us to take part in the same sports featured in the summer X-Games all year ‘round. In fact, the summer X-Games are held in Los Angeles. Beyond that, though, the y are of high significance to anyone due to simple relatability.
Consider the Olympics: they are, of course, an incredible tradition and a fascinating spectacle to behold. They inspire a sense of national pride in all who observe them. It is widely acknowledged that becoming an Olympic athlete requires an absurd amount of dedication and self-sacrifice.
However, as universally-loved as the Olympic Games are, the X-Games serve a function that they simply can’t. The X-Games began in 1995, backed by a simple idea from the marketing think-tank at ESPN Industries–people play all sorts of sports that aren’t sanctioned by most major competitions. Might those people be interested in attending a competition featuring those sports?
At the first X-Games, about 200,000 people were in attendance, and a franchise was born. More than 10 years later, the X-Games have expanded to include a “winter” portion (the first two years the X-Games were held, they focused on summer sports only) as well as Asian, European, and Global divisions.
The appeal of the X-Games can be easily summed up when viewed in context of its competitors’ relative celebrity status. Nearly everyone in touch with modern pop culture knows who LeBron James is; few people know who Nate Holland (the 2010 Winter X-Games Snowboard Cross gold medalist) is. The X-Games are largely about enthusiasm for the sport itself, not enthusiasm for the people who compete in it.
A more practical demonstration of this is ease of attendance. One must leave the country in order to attend the World Cup (and, most often, the Olympics as well), and actual attendance is expensive. Sporting events exclusive to the United States, such as the Superbowl, are equally difficult to attend and pay for.
The X-Games, on the other hand, are simpler to attend (they transfer locations around the U.S. from year to year and season to season) and watching them on television gives one a distinct advantage because they are filmed from above. The X-Games are an event that was created, if not entirely by the people, then certainly for them.
This is the true beauty of the X-Games. Athletes that only adamant fans of a particular sport are familiar with become folk heroes of a sort to those fans.
These athletes’ sheer ability to perform is not what makes them admirable. What makes them so appealing to their fans is the fact that they perform a particular sport well. In essense, the sport itself is more appealing than any individual player.
The 2011 Winter X-Games will take place from Jan. 27-30 on ESPN.
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