Bella Bacon destroyed the wallride feature Joshua Duplechian/X Games

Event News

rail jams are here to stay

The inaugural Street Style goes down at X Games

By: Scott Naismith January 25, 2025

New on the event list this year, Street Style, builds on the growing popularity of rail jam competitions. Riders have been invited from a wide cross-section of skiing’s society with legends of the game like Andreas Håtveit and street skier Taylor Lundquist on the roster.

The idea of these events is that the crowd can get close to the action and that was certainly the case here – some of the riders had to take evasive action to avoid taking out the fans.

Olivia Asselin on the wallride - it was really high. Joshua Duplechian/X Games

The Format

The format is designed to be relatively simple and easily digestible. There are two heats of four riders, the top two (judged on overall impression) after ten minutes, go through to a final rail jam. 

The course looked gnarly –  a wall ride that must be four meters off the flat deck, a picnic bench on the edge of a drop, a set of Jersey barriers and multiple kinked rails complete with stairs.

Olivia Asselin was the obvious winner Joshua Duplechian/X Games

The Women’s Finals

Olivia Asselin starting things off after impressing in her heat, back swapping over the chained gap between the Jersey barriers. She then relentlessly made her way from feature to feature dropping hammers on each – second run she greased a 270 on continuing front 270 off the down bar with enough drip to flood a basement.

The perennially injured Bella Bacon was back shredding, trying to disaster transfer 450 onto the street rail. She never fully locked in but got very close on a couple of gnarly attempts.

Marion Balsamo, who had qualified through the street style series of contests, proved that she belonged with plenty of front swaps and a clean front 270 off the double kink rail.

Eileen Gu struggled and crashed a few times, once scarily falling off the high wallride feature. This did not put Bella Bacon off though, who hiked up a little further to get enough speed and laced a back 450 off the top of the wallride.

In the end, Olivia was head and shoulders above the rest of the women, barely hitting any feature twice. She was offered a victory lap and did the best trick of the day, a K-Fed over the Jersey barrier gap. A well deserved win.

The final podium: Olivia Asselin in first place, Bella Bacon in second place and Marion Balsamo in third.

Women's Podium X Games Street Style Aspen 2025 Joshua Duplechian/X Games

The Men’s Final

To the disappointment of many, Andreas Håtveit did not make it through the finals despite – at the age of 38 – landing his signature backflip to rail.

Colby Stevenson started things off with a 180 onto the picnic bench to switch 270 continuing 270 off the down bar. Max Moffat should have won MVP for throwing his body around – he tried rodeo 450 on continuing 270 onto the down bar four times, taking slam after slam. Tucker Fitzsimons followed up a switch 270 continuing 270 with the same trick that Colby started with. Evan McEachran then one-upped everyone by doing the same but pretzelling 450 off – incredible control.

It was Colby Stevenson, who after a disappointing result in the slopestyle, came out on top. He spent much of the time sessioning the high rail at the top of the wall ride, spinning both in and out and also swapping his way to victory – a switch 270 pretzel 650 off was a highlight that was appreciated by the crowd. The gap onto that rail was significant and any error came with high risk, as the sessions punching bag, Max Moffat, found out a couple of times.

The final podium: Colby Stevenson in first place, Evan McEachran in second and Tucker Fitzsimons in third.

Tucker Fitzsimons is seen as one of the best rails skiers in the world, proving why by progressing to finals. Joshua Duplechian/X Games
Men's Podium X Games Street Style Aspen 2025 Joshua Duplechian/X Games