It was a successful weekend for New Zealand’s snow sports athletes as the team took two gold and three silver at the Aspen X Games, just weeks before the Milano Cortina Olympic Games in February.
Fin Melville Ives took the top spot in Men’s Ski Superpipe. Melville Ives led from the start scoring 89.33, then improving in his second run to score 93.33, then laying down a fearless run to score a 95.00.
No-one could touch the Wanaka based athlete who impressed the judges in showcasing both amplitude and difficulty, his last run giving 6m of air in his first trick, a switch right 9. A rookie in 2025, he narrowly missed podium with a fourth-place finish.
Melville Ives won silver at the 2024 Youth Winter Olympics and in March last year was crowned the 2025 FIS Freeski Halfpipe World Champion at his debut World Champs. This year he has scored two World Cup podiums coming first in Freeski Halfpipe at Buttermilk and second in Calgary.
Joining in the gold glory was Luca Harrington (21) landing the top spot in the Men’s Ski Slopestyle. Harrington, the defending champion from 2025 having come in as an alternate, went into the lead at the end of round one, landing two triples off the bat. Momentarily dropping off the leaderboard, he then scored a 94.33 to scoop the gold in round two. Only two skiers prior have won back to back golds in the event.
Harrington also took silver in Men’s Ski Big Air, Zoi Sadowski-Synnott took silver in Women’s Snowboard Big Air and Rocco Jamieson took silver in Men’s Snowboard Big Air.
This is the most successful X Game for New Zealand athletes.
