Big air, big crowds expected for month-long X Games VIII

PHILADELPHIA -- Among her many athletic accomplishments, 14-year-old Tori Allen holds a world record as the youngest female climber to summit El Capitan, the famous Yosemite National Park landmark.

Having conquered the largest granite monolith on Earth, Allen is more than ready to take on the 60-foot climbing wall at this year's X Games. Allen's event is Speed Climb, in which two climbers race simultaneously up the wall to see who can tag a buzzer first.

"I just turned 14 and I have 20 years ahead of me, so I don't need to get worked up -- no matter what happens," said Allen, a first-time X Games competitor who swept all four adult female rock-climbing championships earlier this year.

Allen will join 300 other "extreme" athletes in Philadelphia from Aug. 19 to late September to compete in the ESPN-sponsored extravaganza of skateboarding, BMX bicycling, wakeboarding and other alternative sports.

More than 200,000 people are expected to attend X Games VIII, and millions more will watch on television. They'll see athletes from South America, Australia, Europe and Asia as well as the United States and Canada execute spectacular aerial maneuvers against a backdrop of throbbing rock music, baggy-pants fashion and do-it-yourself attitude.

Most events will take place at the First Union Center, home of the Philadelphia 76ers and Flyers, and all are free and open to the public.

Part culture, part sport

The X Games are as much a showcase for youth culture as they are about competition. But the athletes take their sports seriously, and their tricks get ever more death-defying.

At the Gravity Games in Cleveland this month, motocross stars Travis Pastrana and Mike Metzger became the first riders ever to land a backflip, raising the stakes for riders at the X Games, considered the Super Bowl of alternative sports.

The backflip is "the gnarliest and probably the most dangerous" of motocross stunts, said Mike Jones, 36, who will compete in the X Games' Moto X events.

Though he's been out the last month with a shoulder injury, Jones said he might try his first backflip. He's never even attempted one in practice, but feels he doesn't have a choice.

"I don't want to go into competition saying the best I can do is third or fourth," said Jones, of Export, Pa.

At least Jones won't have to worry about Pastrana, who injured his knee at the Gravity Games and is not expected to compete.

The network is putting together 20 hours of original programming to be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN 2 and ABC. The Games make their prime-time network debut Aug. 18, with BMX stunt rider Dave Mirra and skateboarding icon Tony Hawk featured on a two-hour ABC telecast beginning at 7 p.m.

Hawk is expected to come out of semiretirement -- again -- to participate in the Vert Doubles and Vert Best Trick competitions. Hawk and his partner placed first in the doubles competition last year and Hawk finished second in Best Trick, executing a 900 -- two-and-a-half aerial rotations off a 13-foot vertical ramp called a half pipe.

So long, street luge

But X Games fans expecting to see street luge, an event where riders lay flat on their back on a long board with wheels, will be disappointed. The sport didn't attract enough viewers to merit keeping, ESPN says.

ESPN frequently tinkers with the X Games lineup, dropping low-rated sports and adding ones thought to be growing in popularity. Windsurfing, bungee jumping and kite-skiing were all featured in the 1995 X Games (then called the Extreme Games), but were later dropped.

"In the long run, the sports have to stand on their own," said Chris Stiepock, general manager of the X Games.

Despite the occasional X Games flop (even Stiepock says bungee jumping was a mistake), extreme or "action" sports are coming into their own.

Skateboarding is the fastest-growing sport in the nation, according to the National Sporting Goods Association. About 9.6 million people hopped on a board at least once during 2001, up 106 percent since 1996. And mainstream media organizations are covering extreme sports more than ever before.

"We always strive to reflect the culture, but at the same time we've helped define the culture through the sheer exposure of it all," Stiepock said.