(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)X Games 14Where: Staples...
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
X Games 14
Where: Staples Center (and Event Deck at LA Live) and the Home Depot Center.
When: Today-Sunday.
Tickets: $10-$20 for all-day entry. Available on site or via Ticketmaster and Ticketmaster.com.
OU WON’T WANT TO MISS THESE
Tonight: Skateboard Big-Air -- Will Jake Brown overcome last year’s frightful slam? Will Bob Burnquist repeat for gold or will Danny Way, coming back from injury, reclaim dominance in event he created? Moto X Best Trick -- Not the same without Travis Pastrana in the lineup. He recently backflipped, on an FMX bike, an in-flight rally car driven by Ken Block, for a magazine cover shot.
Friday: BMX Big-Air and Skateboard Street men’s final -- Kevin Robinson, last year’s athlete of the Games, is fresh from setting a world record above a quarterpipe on a bicycle: 27 feet. Paul Rodriguez, from Chatsworth, is fresh from a $100,000 payday as winner of the inaugural Maloof Money Cup street competition, and a $25,000 triumph at the AST Dew Tour stop in Cleveland. An X Games victory would be worth another $50,000.
Saturday: There are nine finals, all at the Home Depot Center. Perhaps most intriguing is the inaugural Moto X Racing women’s final. A strong favorite is Ashley Fiolek, who is deaf. It’s a disadvantage, but once out front she enters a zone in which she cannot hear the others in hot pursuit, and that removes some of the pressure. The BMX Superpark course, for the inaugural competition, has been criticized by some athletes but the show should still spellbind. Daniel Dhers is coming off a second consecutive Dew Tour triumph, which he attained by pulling off four 720s -- one of them a corked-out no-hander -- on the same run. In skateboard men’s vert, Shaun White and Pierre-Luc Gagnon, who dominate this sport, will battle for gold.
Sunday: Rally Car Super Special final. Pastrana, et al, going ballistic in a caged missile on an obstacle course littered with jumps and ridiculously tight turns. It’s the perfect capper.
-- Pete Thomas
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TODAY’S MEDAL EVENT FINALS
4:30-5:15 p.m.: BMX Freestyle Street final -- Event Deck at LA Live.
5:45-7 p.m.: Skateboard Big Air final -- Staples Center.
7-8 p.m.: Moto X Best Trick final -- Staples Center.
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