Gravity Games in Copper?

COPPER MOUNTAIN – The Winter Gravity Games are coming back, and they may be coming to Summit County.Copper Mountain spokesperson Ben Friedland said that the resort is “in contact” with the Outdoor Life Network (OLN), which began promoting the Winter Gravity Games after buying the Summer Gravity Games from NBC in January. “I cannot confirm that the games will be here, but I can confirm that we are having very serious discussions with them,” Friedland said. The Gravity Games made their debut in 1999 as a collaboration between NBC and the publisher of Surfer, Skateboarder and Bike magazines. While the summer version of the games has been consistently held since 1999, the winter version has only been held once, in 2000 at Mammoth Mountain, Calif. No specifics have been given by OLN as to when the games will take place or what events will be included. Competitions will likely include halfpipe, slopestyle and cross events, resembling ESPN’s Winter X Games, scheduled for Jan. 29 through Feb. 1 in Aspen. Initial press releases issued by OLN in January indicated that the Winter Gravity Games may include a big mountain competition, as well. From Sept. 15-19, OLN broadcast more than 20 hours of the sixth annual Summer Gravity Games in Cleveland, which included skateboarding and BMX and motocross competitions. OLN hopes to revitalize the Gravity Games, which garnered several of the highest-rated action-sports telecasts in history with NBC, according to NBC press releases. In order to renew the Winter Gravity Games, the network created the Gravity Games H20. These games will take place Oct. 14-17 in Perth, Australia. The cable station is best known for carrying live coverage of the Tour de France. Richard Chittick’s e-mail address rchittick@summitdaily.com