X Games Aspen 2026 was the best weekend of competitive snow sports in years. That is not hyperbole. Three British golds. A trick nobody has ever landed in women’s competition. The most decorated winter X Games athlete of all time cementing his legacy with a 25th medal. A 16-year-old winning SuperPipe gold. AI judging in a major freeski comp for the first time. And the entire thing happened in three days at Buttermilk, January 23 to 25, with over a foot of fresh snow hammering the course and challenging every single rider’s speed management.
Twenty-five consecutive years of X Games in Aspen. This was the anniversary weekend. It delivered.
If you only follow one competition all year, this was the one. Here is everything that happened.
Britain Owned This Weekend
Let’s start with the story that matters most to us. Britain took three gold medals at X Games Aspen 2026. Three. In a competition dominated by the US, Japan, and the southern hemisphere, British riders stood on the top step of the podium in Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle, Women’s Ski SuperPipe, and Women’s Ski Slopestyle.
Mia Brooks opened proceedings on Friday night by winning Women’s Snowboard Slopestyle with a score of 96.33, beating Zoi Sadowski-Synnott and Cocomo Murase to claim her second X Games gold medal. She is 19 years old. She dominated throughout and improved her score on her final run when she did not need to. That is the kind of competitive mindset that separates the great from the good.
Zoe Atkin followed on Friday with gold in Women’s Ski SuperPipe, earning her second X Games gold. She opened her run with a massive boost, coasting 16 feet out of the pipe, then put together one of the best competition runs of her career. The podium also featured 15-year-old Indra Brown of Australia, who became the youngest woman ever to medal in Ski SuperPipe in her X Games debut, just four points off gold. Cassie Sharpe of Canada, the 2025 champion, took bronze.
Kirsty Muir completed the British sweep on Sunday by winning Women’s Ski Slopestyle. This was the one that carried the most weight. Muir is Scottish. She made history as the first Scottish woman to win an X Games gold medal. She did it 12 days after a World Cup victory on the same Buttermilk course. She did it after missing the last two X Games entirely due to a torn ACL. Her technicality through the rail section impressed the judges, and a right double cork 1080 sealed the win.
Her winning run included a left 270 continuing 270, switch left 270 pretzel 450, backside 450 off the up rail, switch left alley-oop 540 Japan, right double cork 1080 safety, and a left double cork 1440 safety. She also took silver in Women’s Ski Big Air behind Mathilde Gremaud. Two medals in one weekend, 12 months after reconstructive knee surgery.
If you are not paying attention to British winter sports, you are missing something genuinely historic.
McMorris Becomes the Most Decorated X Games Winter Athlete of All Time
Mark McMorris won Men’s Snowboard Slopestyle on Sunday to claim his 25th X Games medal. That is the most by any winter athlete in X Games history. His 14th gold. His 8th slopestyle gold. The numbers are absurd.
He landed his winning run on his third and final attempt in challenging conditions. The run included a Cab 270 back lip to switch, half Cab onto container back 270 lipslide 270 off, switch back 270, Cab double 900 tailgrab, backside triple cork 1440 Indy, and a frontside triple 1800 frontside grab.
Marcus Kleveland took silver. Red Gerard took bronze. Both are elite riders in their own right. Neither could match McMorris when it counted.
Scotty James Ties the All-Time Gold Record
Scotty James won Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe on Saturday with a score of 95.00, claiming his eighth X Games gold medal and his fifth consecutive SuperPipe victory. Five in a row. He now ties Shaun White and Chloe Kim for the most X Games gold medals in skiing or snowboarding.
His winning run included a never-before-seen switch backside 1440 to backside 1440 combination. The Japanese riders Haku Shimasaki and Shuichiro Shigeno took silver and bronze respectively, but this was James from start to finish.
Murase Lands a Trick Nobody Has Ever Landed
Cocomo Murase won Women’s Snowboard Big Air on Saturday with a score of 96.66 by landing the first backside 1620 triple cork ever performed by a woman in competition. She was visibly emotional after the landing. She should be. That trick was previously theoretical in women’s snowboarding.
Zoi Sadowski-Synnott scored 93.33 for silver. Mia Brooks collected bronze, adding to her slopestyle gold from the previous evening. Murase now has five X Games gold medals.
Ogiwara Remains the Only Rider to Land a 2340
Hiroto Ogiwara defended his Men’s Snowboard Big Air title on Saturday by landing a backside 2340 melon. He remains the only snowboarder to land a 2340 in competition. Back-to-back Big Air golds. He scored 93.66, with Rocco Jamieson of New Zealand taking silver and Kira Kimura of Japan collecting bronze.
Japanese riders took gold in both Big Air events on the same night. That is not a coincidence. Japan’s snowboard programme is the most productive talent pipeline in the sport right now.
The Rest of the Podiums
Men’s Ski Slopestyle: Luca Harrington of New Zealand took gold with a score of 94.33, becoming the first skier to win two consecutive X Games Slopestyle golds. He was 21 years old and landed the only triple cork in the competition, executing it twice, putting up his hands into a legendary claim as he skied into the corral. The return of the channel gap jump added difficulty. Colby Stevenson took silver, Alex Hall took bronze. This was also the first time AI was openly used to judge a major freeski competition, which generated its own debate.
Men’s Ski Big Air: Mac Forehand took gold with a score of 96.00, landing a switch triple cork 2160 when he was sitting dead last. Luca Harrington earned silver (his second medal of the weekend), competing in a T-shirt despite the conditions. Dylan Deschamps of Canada landed a quad cork for bronze.
Men’s Ski Knuckle Huck: Alex Hall became the first skier to win three Knuckle Huck titles, earning his 13th overall X Games medal. He is now tied with Henrik Harlaut for the most X Games ski medals in history at 14.
Women’s Ski Big Air: Delayed from Saturday to Sunday due to weather, Mathilde Gremaud of Switzerland took gold with a left nose butter double cork 1260 safety, scoring 94.44 and earning her fourth Big Air victory and 11th X Games medal. Kirsty Muir took silver with a double 1620 on her final run, missing gold by 0.44 points. Two medals in one day for Muir. Megan Oldham of Canada earned bronze with a left mute 1260 scoring 90.00. The top three were separated by just 4.66 points.
Women’s Snowboard SuperPipe: 16-year-old Sara Shimizu of Japan won gold with a score of 95.33, upgrading last year’s bronze. She delivered a massive double cork 1080 under the Buttermilk night lights. Rise Kudo of Japan took silver, Queralt Castellet of Spain earned bronze.
Women’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck: 16-year-old Jessica Perlmutter won her first X Games gold, ending Cocomo Murase’s two-year reign in the discipline. Jasmine Baird of Canada earned her first career X Games medal with bronze.
Men’s Snowboard Knuckle Huck: Rene Rinnekangas of Finland took his first Knuckle Huck gold. His winning tricks included a Cab 540 hand drag bringback to 360, a power slide to frontside rodeo 720, and a hand drag double sloth roll. Halldor Helgason of Iceland took silver. Marcus Kleveland earned bronze (his second medal of the weekend).
Men’s Ski SuperPipe: The final event of the weekend and it delivered. Finley Melville-Ives, a 19-year-old from New Zealand, opened with a 93.00 that nobody could beat. Then Ferreira, the hometown hero, put down a monster run featuring a switch double cork 1080 and a 1620 to close. Goepper answered with a 92.00, ending with a switch bio 9 and snapping his poles over his legs in celebration. But Melville-Ives, already sitting in gold, dropped in again anyway and improved to 95.00, soaring 20 feet 6 inches on the wall. He did not need to go. He went anyway. Gold: Melville-Ives. Silver: Nick Goepper. Bronze: Alex Ferreira.
Women’s Ski Knuckle Huck: Marin Hamill took gold with a switch right tail butter 720 in her second X Games appearance, having recently qualified for Milano Cortina 2026. Alais Develay of France earned silver, also with a 720 but larger than bronze medallist Anni Karava of Finland.
Snowmobile Freestyle: Brett Turcotte of Canada won with a dominant opening run. Snowmobile Speed and Style was converted to a head-to-head snocross format due to poor visibility, with 39-year-old Willie Elam of Idaho winning his first X Games gold.
What This Weekend Tells Us
Three things.
First, British winter sports is in the strongest position it has ever been. Brooks, Atkin, and Muir are not anomalies. They are the visible tip of a pipeline that runs from dry slopes and indoor centres in the UK through BUSC and into the World Cup and X Games circuits. This is exactly the kind of story we exist to cover at Gravity.
Second, the generational shift is real. Shimizu is 16. Perlmutter is 16. Brown is 15. Harrington is 21. These riders are not “ones to watch in the future”. They are winning now.
Third, the legends are not finished. McMorris, James, Hall, and Gremaud proved that experience still wins when it matters most. The sport is getting younger and more technical, but the riders who have been through the pressure of X Games finals before still know how to handle the moment.
X Games Aspen 2026 was Year 25. If the next 25 produce weekends anything like this one, the event’s legacy is secure.