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The best athletes of the World gathered in Tignes for the 3rd edition of the Winter X Games Europe Tignes! There should be three winners – for HalfPipe skiing, SlopeStyle and Backcountry snowboarding. Shaun White won double gold Superpipe & Slopestyle and became the absolute leader.


The Winter X Games traditionally took place in the French ski resort of Tignes. Chas Guldemond, Mark McMorris, Luke Mitriani, Sebastien Toutant, Seppe Smits, Louie Vito, Peetu Piiroinen, Stale Sandbech, Iouri Podladtchikov, Christian Haller, Mason Aguirre, Shaun White and some others participated in the competition.


Especially for the X Games Europe’s largest pipe (220 meters long, 19 meters wide and 7 meters high) was built at the resort. American and French shaper took 44,000 square meters of snow. The X slopestyle trail is some 600 metres long with a 190-metre rise hosted big air, tables, boxes and rails. To prepare the track, shapers processed 115,000 sq. m. of snow which is equal to 16 football fields covered with snow. Some snowmobile freestyle shows took place every day as part of the competition.


HalfPipe final took place on March 15. Shaun White’s victory was clinched on the first run of the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe finals. White’s nearly flawless run — which included a switch cab double cork, a double McTwist 1260 and an alleyoop rodeo on the last hit — scored a 98. Louie Vito took second and Iouri Podladtchikov finished third. Vito’s third run included four double corks in-a-row and scored a 94.33. Podladtchikov scored an 88 on his first run, which included a frontside 900 and a double McTwist 1260.

1. Shaun White 98.00
2. Louie Vito 94.33
3. Iouri Podladtchikov 88.00
4. Matt Ladley 85.00
5. Danny Davis 75.00
6. Benji Farrow 70.00
7. Christian Haller 43.00
8. Nathan Johnstone 31.00

Kelly Clark won WX Tignes SuperPipe with 95 points. Her running scored a full 10 points above Elena Hight who took the second prize. Kaitlyn Farrington took bronze.


Shaun White won his second gold medal at Winter X Games Tignes in Snowboard SlopeStyle. White improved his first-run score of 95 with a second run that included three double corks in a row, including a switch double cork 1080 and two double cork 1260s, for a top score of 97. It has been three years since White won a Slopestyle event at Winter X, where he earned Slopestyle and SuperPipe gold at Winter X Games 2009 in Aspen. Mark McMorris earned silver with a score of 90 and a run that included a frontside cab 1080 and a frontside double cork 1080. Eric Willett took bronze with a score of 88 and a run that included two double cork 1080s.

Winter X Europe 2011 Slopestyle gold medalist Jamie Anderson repeated her winning performance in women’s slopestyle at Winter X Tignes 2012, taking gold with a run that included a 720 tail grab, a switch back 540 and solid, technical tricks in the rail section. This is her fifth Winter X gold medal. Spencer O'Brien kept her solidy in silver-medal position throughout the contest. WX Europe 2011 bronze medalist Enni Rükajarvi came in third.