Park City skier Colby Stevenson had never been invited to X Games before this year, but the rookie stamped his name on the competition this week and is leaving Aspen with two fresh Gold Medals around his neck. Stevenson stormed out of the gate to take the win at the inaugural Ski Knuckle Huck competition—a modified big-air event that emphasizes creativity, style and variety over sheer technicality and amplitude—before dominating the field with four flawless runs to secure gold in Ski Slopestyle. Sundance is in full swing, but Stevenson could well be the biggest star in Park City right now.
Stevenson may not have been widely-known to a broader audience prior to his historic X Games performance, but the 22-year-old from Park City was was already regarded as a world-class talent within the freeskiing community. After Stevenson won the hotly-contested SVLSH Cup in both 2018 and 2019, it wasn’t hard to envision his competitive pedigree and well-rounded skillset—he finished first in slopestyle and second in halfpipe at the 2014 USASA Nationals—taking him to the top of the podium at freeskiing’s premier events.
No X Games rookie before Stevenson had ever won gold in slopestyle, an event in which skiers compete on a course filled with complex rails and massive jumps. The new jam-style format allowed Stevenson to showcase an arsenal of tricks and variations that helped him stand out from the crowd and lead the finals wire to wire. To win the event, he had to best a stacked field of competitors including Olympic, X Games and World Championship medalist Alex Beaulieu-Marchand, X Games gold medalist Fabian Bösch and defending X Games Slopestyle champion Alex Hall, who also calls Park City Home.
The sky’s the limit for Park City’s latest freeskiing phenom. Stevenson may have just announced himself on the world stage, but with plenty more X Games on the way—not to mention World Championships and the Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022—he’s just getting started.
