Simon d'Artois fell short of a medal in Aspen, Colo. on Jan. 29, finishing in sixth at the 2023 Winter X Games. The Whistlerite rallied after struggling to put down a clean run on his first two attempts, ending the contest on a high note with two full pulls down the halfpipe. Yet, it wasn't enough to impress a demanding panel of judges, and the closest he got to the podium was fourth place at one point.
d'Artois has six FIS World Cup medals under his belt, the most recent of which came on Jan. 20 in Calgary, Alta. His lone X Games medal was a historic gold earned in 2015, and he is the first Canadian man to win a ski halfpipe event in Aspen. The Blackcomb Freestyle Club alum last took part in the X Games in 2019, where he placed seventh.
American icon David Wise prevailed last Sunday with a run that included consecutive double cork 1260s. The Reno, Nev. native is now a five-time Winter X Games champion to go along with his three Olympic halfpipe medals (two gold, one silver). Fellow Team USA contender Birk Irving grabbed silver, and Aspen newcomer Jon Sallinen became the first man from Finland to win X Games hardware with his bronze medal.
Brendan Mackay of Calgary led all Canadians with a fifth-place result. Just like d'Artois, he was fourth midway through the contest, but fell on his last run trying to make his case for a medal. Another Calgarian, Noah Bowman, finished seventh and had to be helped off the course after suffering an apparent leg injury during his final attempt.
Six-time X Games medallist Alex Ferreira, a fan favourite in his hometown of Aspen, was forced to withdraw from the competition after falling hard on each of his first two runs.
In other news, part-time Whistlerite Mark McMorris became the most successful Winter X Games athlete in history on Sunday as he won gold in snowboard slopestyle over Marcus Kleveland and Mons Roisland of Norway. McMorris now owns an unparalleled 22 Winter X Games medals, one more than fellow snowboard freestyler Jamie Anderson of the United States. Anderson is expecting a child and thus did not participate in this year's event.
