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In a move made late last week, ESPN announced that Snowmobile racing and Snowmobile Speed & Style will no longer be included in it’s Winter X Games events.  Citing that they made the move to focus more on sports that the fans can get behind, ESPN said they are still going to make an effort to push the Freestyle aspects of snowmobile sports at X.  It appears that only one person was effected negatively by the decision, 5-peat champion Tucker Hibbert.

Creating a nearly 6-week gap in the schedule this will no doubt put a massive strain on racers, teams and sponsors in the Snowmobile racing realm.  As bad as this sucks for those people, it is also a huge step forward for action sports on a broader scale.  ESPN’s decision to focus on the fan friendly sports will allow them to take the next step in terms of mainstream acceptance and respect.

With events like the Maloof Money Cup and Street League making in-roads to the worldwide sports viewing public, things like Snowmobile Cross are only holding things back, by hanging onto the idea that just because something is different and not widely accepted, that makes it a legitimate action sport.  I think the response to Enduro-X this past summer can speak to my argument there.

Now if ESPN would just let the rally thing die, and bring back BMX dirt I could finally sleep at night.

** Note: All this being said I am happy that ESPN has decided to hold onto and push the freestyle elements of Snowmobiling.  Action sports are as much about style and expression as they about an alternative to traditional sports.  Seems like this is some serious backing to that mindset.

-t