Español French German Portuguese

Mountain Bike Slopestyle Makes X Games Debut

The first wave of athletes invited to compete at X Games Munich 2013, the final international event of 2013, includes stars of past X Games and local standouts in the events, which include a new discipline, Mountain Bike Slopestyle.  The inaugural competition, taking place June 27 – 30, will feature more than 200 athletes competing for medals and prize money in the sports of Skateboard, BMX, RallyCross, Moto X and Mountain Bike.  The cosmopolitan city of Munich offers a perfect backdrop for X Games at Munich Olympic Park in the middle of the Bavarian capital.

Mountain Bike Slopestyle will debut at X Games Munich. In this discipline, 16 athletes drop in from a 35-foot tower into a 500-meter long course built on a slope, with dirt obstacles as well as some wooden stunt features. The Slopestyle course will feature dirt jumps, road gaps, hips, step ups, wallrides and log rides, all culminating in a supersized 60-foot gap jump. The same course will also be used for the Red Bull Phenom competition where the top three riders from an online video compeition and the three top FMB World Tour athletes aged 15-19 who have not yet attended a Diamond event will be invited to compete at X Games Munich.

The first wave of invited athletes includes:

• Bucky Lasek (Baltimore, Md.) – After a nine year hiatus from the top of the podium in X Games Skateboard Vert, Lasek is on a roll, earning the gold medal in the last two X Games competitions. The oldest skateboarder in the Vert field, Lasek showed off his veteran knowledge en route to his 17th X Games medal.

• Pedro Barros (Florianopolis, Brazil) – Winning nearly every competition he entered in 2012, Pedro Barros is the latest versatile skater to come from the Brazilian scene. Going for his fourth-consecutive gold medal in Skateboard Park, Barros has won all the major competitions at just 18 years old.

• Njyah Huston (Davis, Calif.) – Winning the last two Street League Skateboarding competitions at X Games, Huston took gold in Barcelona with the highest Flow and Control section scores of the final – clinching the top spot in dramatic fashion on the final trick of the competition. Still just 18 years old, Huston is one of the best contest skaters in the business, with more Street League Skateboarding wins than the rest of the field combined.

• Taka Higashino (Osaka, Japan) – After moving to the States in 2006 to focus full-time on his motocross career, Taka had his breakout year at X Games Los Angeles 2012 by winning two medals, including Moto X Freestyle gold.  Higashino continued his success at X Games Foz do Iguaçu in April with gold and will look for his third-consecutive Moto X Freestyle gold in Munich.

• Mat Rebeaud (Payerne, Switzerland) – The first non-American rider to medal in X Games Moto X Freestyle, Switzerland’s Mat Rebeaud has been making a name for himself in Speed & Style in 2013. Rebeaud earned the bronze medal at X Games Foz do Iguaçu and then silver at X Games Barcelona.

• Zack Warden (Saint Louis, Mo.) – Earning his first X Games medal just last year with a silver at X Games Los Angeles, Warden has never looked back. After winning gold in the first two X Games events of 2013, Warden will go for his third consecutive GoPro BMX Freestyle Big Air gold with his innovative tricks.

• Steffi Laier (Dielheim, Germany) – German rider Laier already has won the World, European and AMA Championships and is now looking for her first X Games medal in Moto X Enduro X. After an eighth place finish in the Enduro X competition in Los Angeles, Laier will go for gold in front of her home crowd.

• Peter Henke (Ingelheim, Germany) – Currently ranked eighth overall on the FMB World Tour, Henke’s best finish of the year came at the recent Red Bull Berg Line competition where he earned his invite to X Games Munich with a sixth place finish.

• Martin Soederstroem (Uppsala, Sweden) – One of the most diverse mountain bike athletes, Soederstroem earned his international breakthrough in 2008 through wins at several dirt and slopestyle courses throughout Europe. Since then, he finished the FMB World Tour 2012 in second place and earned a win at the prestigious Freestyle.ch, among others.

The list of first wave athletes invited to compete at X Games Munich 2013 is now available and will be updated at www.xgames.com.

*PLEASE NOTE: The invited athlete list is constantly being updated and is subject to change.

Tickets for X Games Munich 2013 are available for purchase HERE.

Additional information on all X Games Munich events will be forthcoming on www.xgames-munich.com for fans or on www.espnmediazone.com for media only.

-30-

Contacts:         

U.S. Media:                   Grace Coryell                X Games, +1 310-642-1519; [email protected]

German Media:              Tom Camsky     X Games Munich, +49 89 3067 2069; [email protected]

European Media:           Nicole Jung                         Hopscotch, +353 1 639 88 81; [email protected]