Fifth Time’s a Charm

Sweden’s Daniel Bodin Captures First Winter X Games Gold

Aspen, Colo. – After four years of finishing fourth in Snowmobile Freestyle at Winter X Games, Daniel Bodin wondered if a gold medal was in his future.

In 2011, Bodin got his answer as he captured the top prize in Snowmobile Freestyle.

“I don’t even understand what is going on,” Bodin said of his victory. “I have gotten fourth place for the past four years and I finally got gold.  It is going to be hard next year to top this and hard work pays off.”

Bodin’s first run proved to be his winning run, scoring a 91.33. The run included a heart-attack backflip, a Cordova backflip, a Superman seat-grab, a backflip Superman Indy, a backflip heal-clicker, a kiss-of-death and a seat-grab backflip.

Last year’s gold medalist, Justin Hoyer grabbed the silver medal with a final score of 91.00.

“Bodin has been working his tail off and clearly deserves this gold,” Hoyer said.  “I am not ashamed one bit to be beaten by him.  I would have needed a seat-grab backflip like he (Bodin) did.”

For the second year in-a-row, Texas native Caleb Moore grabbed the bronze medal. An astonishing feat for someone who just started snowmobiling a year ago after concentrating on ATVs.

“Sleds are different than quads in every way,” Moore said.  “We are still adapting. These guys have eight or nine years under their belt, so I don’t feel bad losing to them.”

Snowmobile Freestyle features 12 riders on 500 pound snowmobiles taking individual runs and testing their skills on jumps ranging from 65’ to more than 100’ long. Judging will be based on overall impression, trick execution, volume of tricks, use of course, landings and style. The variety of jumps allow the riders to showcase the full arsenal of tricks that the sport Snowmobile Freestyle has to offer.

For Winter X Games media information, including press releases, logos and additional images from past events, log on to www.espneventmedia.com. To view medalist runs, visit the Winter X Games You Tube Channel – https://www.youtube.com/xgames and follow the X Games on Twitter at Twitter.com/xgames

 

WINTER X GAMES 15

Winter X Games will celebrate its 15^th anniversary in Aspen/Snowmass, Colo. January 27-30, 2011, with live coverage on ESPN and ESPN2. This will mark the 10^th consecutive year Winter X Games will be held in Aspen and will feature new events, more than 200 athletes and primetime coverage on ESPN on Sun., Jan.30. In addition to 24 hours of live programming on ESPN, Winter X Games 15 will be offered for the first time on ESPN 3D, as well as on ESPN International, XGames.com, ESPN360.com, SportsCenter and ESPN2’s X Center.

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Contacts:    Alex Rozis (Broadcast media), 415-609-0749, [email protected]

Danny Chi, (Print Media), 310-500-5699, [email protected]

Crystal Yang (Radio Media), 310-491-6735, [email protected]

Grace Coryell, 310-956-5098, [email protected]