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The SuperPipe at Buttermilk Mountain once again belongs to Hotdog Hans’ bitter rival.
After a turbulent trip since his last gold in 2021, Alex Ferreira was beaming atop the podium at the bottom of the pipe, his crown regained.
“What can I say? I’m just so grateful and honored to do well in my hometown,” Ferreira said. “It’s been a long time coming.”
Ferreira thought last year was the year for his big comeback, missing the last two X Games with injuries. Those times made him reevaluate his priorities and he leaned into a strict regimen and focused up. He learned to be more strategic with his skiing. But the bright lights of X Games blinded some of that vision and he still went full send, even in unideal conditions. He crashed hard twice and didn’t finish the competition.
In the summer, an arm injury just increased tensions. Approaching 29, some in his circles started advising him to stop skiing and that existential question loomed once again. Instead, he found a way to lean in even harder.
The result? The best start to a season possible: Two World Cup victories in December and now back on top of his home mountain.
“It’s the most beautiful feeling I think I’ve ever felt, the sweetest redemption I’ve ever tasted,” Ferreira said. “I’m fired up more than ever.”
Ferreira stuck every trick of his routine on the first run, even as three of the eight competitors crashed. His 93.33, as it turned out, would’ve stood the test of the rest of the competition in first place.
He came out awkward on a landing on his second run, but came out flying in the third with last year’s champ David Wise the last competitor to go and always a threat to make a run for the top. Ferreira put down a 95.33 run, followed by his now-patented ski pole twirl at the landing space.
Ferreira’s run included a switch left double cork 1080 Japan, switch double cork 1620 safety, left cork 1080 tail, switch right double cork 1080 Japan and a left-side double cork 1620, he said.
“This is the third contest I’ve done it and obviously I want to keep building it more and more and more,” Ferreira said.
In warmups, he was visibly excited at the bottom of the pipe, nodding his head and fist bumping his cameraman in tow. He said that he knew it was going to be a good day when he woke up not sore, and told his friends it was the most calm he’s ever been for an event.”
It’s Ferreira’s third gold in Aspen and first since his back-to-back in 2019 and 2020. It’s his seventh medal in his hometown overall.
Rounding out the podium was New Zealand’s Nico Porteous donning silver for his fourth X Games medal and Bend, Oregon’s Hunter Hess with his first X Games medal in the bronze position.
Finland’s Jon Sallinen — a graduate of Carbondale’s Colorado Rocky Mountain School and winner of a bronze medal in last year’s SuperPipe — crashed out on each of his first two runs and was escorted out by medical staff. He didn’t take his third run.
Amongst the wellwishers at the bottom of the pipe was Hanna Faulhaber, and the two shared an emotional moment before taking some photos together. Ferreira’s success is just another redemption story for the other local pipe competitor as she recovers from knee surgery.
“I told her she’s got plenty of gold to come it’s not even fair,” Ferreira said. “She’s going to be just fine and I’m going to be in the gym with her working out, getting strong and ready to go and it’s going to be a fantastic ride into the next Olympics.”
It’s a quick turnaround for Ferreira; next week he’ll be at Mammoth Mountain looking for his third straight World Cup win and trying to keep his heater going.
“Just stick to the training, stick to what you know, keep doing the best you possibly can and never, under any circumstances, give up,” Ferreira said. “The team around me, the people around me are the best people in the world and they really make the dream come true. … Thank you to Aspen, thank you to the town and thank you to X Games.”