Ski cross, freestyle snowmobile to return to Aspen for 2016 Winter X Games

Ski cross and snowmobile freestyle competitions will be back in the snowy mix at the 20th Winter X Games in Aspen in January.

After a three-year hiatus, ski cross returns to the winter festival. ESPN, the owner of the circus-like spectacle of top skiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers, cut boardercross and ski cross from the event in 2013, ending the tenure of the longest-running X Games events.

The 2013 Winter X Games was the first without cross athletes – gladiators, really – jostling at high speed as they carom six-at-a-time down a course of jumps and berms. ESPN brought boardercross back in 2014, but not ski cross.

Three-time X Games ski cross medalist and four-time Olympian Casey Puckett of Aspen welcomed the decision to include ski cross in the 2016 X Games. When ESPN dropped the event, he traveled to ESPN headquarters in Connecticut to lobby executives to reconsider.

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