The Winter X Games will return to Aspen in January 2026 for its 25th year.
With a new direction and expanded strategy for the X Games that pushes the summer and winter versions of the action sports contests into multiple cities, it was unclear exactly where Aspen, the host of the Winter X Games since 2002, might fit in the overhauled franchise.
The X Games on Tuesday morning announced that Buttermilk ski area would be included in the 2026 rendition of the winter competitions that launched high-flying skiing and snowboard athletes into the mainstream.
“For 25 years Aspen’s been where winter sports legends are made and boundaries are unlimited,” Jeremy Bloom, the CEO of X Games, said in a statement. “We’re hyped to keep building on this legacy and bring X Games fans and athletes together for another unforgettable experience in 2026.”
Bloom took the reins at X Games in December and quickly launched a rebranding that includes a winter and summer leagues, sponsored teams with drafted athletes. The initial plans call for several 10-athlete teams roaming to four summer and four winter cities in Asia, Europe and North America.
In February the X Games announced Salt Lake City as a first-time host of its summer Moto X, BMX and skateboarding events June 27-29, with Deadmau5 and Sublime headlining the music for the festival. The summer action sports gala will stop for the first time in Osaka, Japan, the week before.
Bloom told The Sun in January that his team was studying bids from as many as 35 host cities for the X Games expansion and the plan called for long-term contracts to build a community around the event.
“We want to go really deep into these communities,” Bloom said. “We want to partner with schools and partner with cities to build skateboard parks and BMX trails and motocross courses. We want kids to see our incredible athletes and then tell their parents, ‘I want to do that.’”
The Jan. 23-26 Aspen stop is less than two weeks before the start of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, which might impact X Games participation by Olympians. The X Games plans to announce details of the new team structure and host cities in February after the Winter Olympics in Italy.
Local news outlets in Park City, Utah have reported that the community’s ramp up to hosting the 2034 Winter Olympics as well as the 2027 departure of the mid-winter Sundance Film Festival for Boulder in make it “a top contender” for hosting the Winter X Games.
Bloom in January said the Winter X Games 2026 contest in Aspen would be “the final hurrah of the old model.”
“We are pumped to have X Games return to Aspen for a 25th consecutive year,” John Rigney, the head of business development for Aspen One, said in a statement. (Aspen One is the parent company of Aspen Skiing Co. and an expanding portfolio of hotels and other ventures.) “X Games is the gold standard of action sports, and years of exemplary partnership have defined our storied history together, as well as our mutual commitment to innovation in snow sports and excellence in elevating athletes who continue to break boundaries and raise the bar.”
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