Day One at Sloanyard | Summer X Games 2022

Skateboard Vert Best Trick: Elliot Sloan Takes Gold

Kicking off X Games 2022 in style, the huge vert ramp at the Sloanyard boasted 100 feet in width and countless extra features such as vertical extensions, corners, launch ramps, as well as a channel and bank section for creative transfers.

As the ‘host with the most’, Elliot Sloan must have some kind of advantage on his home turf, right? Nope! With the best of the best vert skaters in attendance, every X Games medal was a hard-earned battle.

Sloan learned that the hard way in the Skateboard Vert final, when he finished closely outside a podium spot in fourth place. Although he strung together a huge frontside nosebone, Indy 540, frontside stalefish, kickflip Indy on the extension, frontside tailgrab nosebone, frontside heelflip grab, melon 540, Indy air to fakie, he kept missing the Cab heelflip 720 Indy on the final wall. As a result, Sloan had to settle for fourth place with Jimmy Wilkins taking the gold medal.

But finally, Sloan’s moment arrived in the highly progressive Skateboard Vert Best Trick final. In the 20-minute jam session, six skateboarders kept upping the ante with highly technical tricks. This was when Sloan clinched the win by first putting down his Cab heelflip 720 Indy, only to follow up with a perfect frontside Caballerial heelflip varial melon over the channel for X Games gold.

This marked Sloan’s sixth X Games gold – and he wasn’t even done for the day! Let’s not forget Monster Energy rider Moto Shibata and his unique blend of style and technical finesse. Fresh off a silver-medal finish at X Games Chiba 2022, the 26-year-old from Osaka, Japan, unveiled his brand-new front foot impossible lien to tail in Best Trick to stoke the crowd and judges.

BMX Mega Park: Pat Casey Claims Silver

For something the world had never seen before, X Games 2022 introduced MegaPark as a brand-new discipline. And the Sloanyard really lives up to the ‘mega’ moniker: Riders drop in from a 30-foot roll-in, followed by a 35-foot right-side gap jump, a 20-foot-tall quarterpipe, a 27-foot roller jump and into an 18-foot-tall quarterpipe.

Setting things off, the BMX Mega Park discipline featured five finalists from the United States and three from Australia in a 30-minute jam session. When all was said and done, 28-year-old Pat Casey from Riverside, California, secured the silver medal with a powerful run covering the entire course.

It wasn’t easy! After taking a slam on his first run, Casey found his groove on Run 2: Tailwhip Cash Roll over the big gap, followed by barspin to tuck no-hander on the quarterpipe, 360 double tailwhip over the gap, and barspin to tailwhip on the final quarterpipe earned the BMX icon second place.

Wednesday’s silver medal brings Casey’s X Games medal count to five medals: 1 gold, 3 silver, 1 bronze. He’s also busier than most riders at X Games 2022, because he’ll be competing in five disciplines: BMX MegaPark, Dirt, Park Best Trick, as well as Moto X 110s. Stay tuned!

Skateboard MegaPark: Elliot Sloan Claims Silver 

Capping off an epic day at the Sloanyard, the Skateboard MegaPark contest featured the cream of the crop in Big Air and Vert competitions. Again, Sloan could not count on his home field advantage and had to battle to get his hands on some heavy metal (X Games medal, that is).

In the 30-minute jam session, Sloan was battling France’s Edouard Damestoy, who took an early lead. But after some difficulty stringing together a run, the Lord of the Sloanyard put it down in signature style: backside tailgrab 720 over the gap, huge tailgrab 540 on the quarterpipe, tailgrab 540 over the second gap and a Caballerial 720 Indy on the final wall earned Sloan the silver medal in a dramatic final.

On the strength of Wednesday’s silver-medal finish in Skateboard MegaPark, Sloan now owns 15 X Games medals: 6 gold, 7 silver, 2 bronze. Thanks for hosting a world-class event in your backyard, Elliot and thanks to the crew at ESPN for the global broadcast.

Whats next? Get ready for the roar of engines sounding over Axell Hodges’ legendary Slayground compound on Thursday. The world elite of Moto X is ready to send it big, plus some high-caliber BMX Dirt action. It’s going to be lit!