Skier Birk Ruud has long been a specialist. The big air nerd wins Olympic gold in 2022, shows tricks that no expert can say exactly what they are called. He has long since outgrown his home discipline - and therefore has a special chance at the upcoming 25th Winter X Games.
Men sliding down a mountain on shovels, climbing in the ice, racing bicycles in the snow. What sounds like alternative suggestions to the Wok World Championship are all genuine competitions in the history of the X Games. In 1995, ESPN started its extreme sports Olympics for skateboard and BMX athletes, followed in 1997 by the Winter X Games. The winter version in particular looks a lot more like a show event at the beginning.
25 years later, there is not much left of the somewhat aimless and fun-oriented circus image. The Winter X Games have become the second place of longing for every skier and snowboarder, right after the Olympics. There are no qualifications, and to this day the athletes are invited by the organizers.
Among them is always a young Norwegian, who has become an integral part of the world class. In a way, Birk Ruud brings the circus back. Because in ski freestyle, criticism has been voiced more and more in recent years that whoever manages the most turns in the air wins. Described as a "spin to win", the development is more reminiscent of traditional gymnastics or high diving than park sessions with a few friends, and thus the place freestyle skiing originally came from.
So in this environment, in which judges recognize in a matter of seconds which axis a person has turned four and a half times, Ruud manages to remain unpredictable. In 2021 he shows a trick at the Big Air World Cup in Austria for which there is still no real name. In the middle of a kind of back flip, he breaks the rotation and turns back again.
In October 2022 he will prove that the sometimes unconventional movements in the air can also help him to victory. In the big air season opener, he hits a double cork 900 pretzel bringback (the exact number of rotations will be debated again later). "I wasn't sure, would he break off or what would he do?" the SRF commentators puzzled and, looking at the repetition, came to the conclusion: "Physically, it's actually not possible." The jury sees the jump as the best of the evening.
Ruud feels at home in Big Air. In the current World Cup season he can win the first two dates. He won the World Cup in 2020 and 2021, and in 2022 he won the gold medal at the Olympic premiere of the discipline, which he dedicated to his father, who had died of cancer. During the competition, he wears a gold bracelet that the latter once gave him. "I think he would be very happy if he saw how happy I am here and that I'm achieving my goals," said Ruud after the win.
But he also has medal chances outside of his home discipline. In slopestyle he finished second in the World Cup last year and was at the top of three events. He can win the overall ranking for the most complete driver of the season.
Slopestyle consists of a course with jumps, partly over the same jumps as in Big Air, and the rail sections. The drivers have to drive as artistically as possible over pipes. Ruud also proves outside of the competition that he has no problem with that. A mobile phone video shows him sliding over a rail on cross-country skis.
The current slopestyle season has also got off to a promising start. After two appointments, he is in second place, just behind the four-time World Cup winner Andri Ragettli, and was even able to surpass the model athlete from Switzerland at the start of the season. At 22, the Norwegian is poised to become the best skier in the world in two different ways.
At this weekend's X Games, Ruud will compete in both disciplines, and the event's official website even lists him as a favorite in both. Double wins are the exception in the 25-year history of the event. But an old English phrase says "the sky is the limit". It rarely suited the career prospects of high-flyer Birk Ruud, the Erling Haaland of winter sports.
