Eight Athletes Participate in Opening Press Conference; Two Eliminations Tonight

Tignes, France – Together with ESPN and Canal+ Events, Tignes Resort welcomed the first Winter X Games Europe today at a press conference in front of 125 media and the following eight elite athletes who will compete in the inaugural event: Torah Bright (Australia), Kevin Rolland (France), Jenny Jones (UK), Xavier Bertoni (France), JJ Thomas (USA), Mathieu Crepel (France), Louie Vito (USA). Final competitions begin tomorrow and will go through Friday.

Snowboard SuperPipe Women’s Eliminations were held tonight under the lights and temperatures in the teens. Australia’s Torah Bright, 2010 Winter Olympic gold medalist, easily qualified in first for the women’s Snowboard SuperPipe Final which will be held on Thursday. Bright’s best elimination run score was nearly 12 points higher than number two qualifier Ellery Hollingsworth from the USA.  Four of the six riders who made the Winter X Games Europe Final were in the 2010 Olympics.

Skiing SuperPipe Men’s Eliminations were also held this evening where Canadian Justin Dorey took the lead with his second run, which scored 40 points higher than the second qualifier. Two athletes did not let there homecountry down in tonight’s elimination where Tignes’ own Xavier Bertoni and Kevin Rolland will head into tomorrow’s night final in the two and three spots, respectively.

For Winter X Games Europe media information, including press releases, logos and images, log on to www.espneventmedia.com. For the complete, updated list of Winter X Games Europe athletes, log on to www.winterxgameseurope.com. Follow Winter X Games Europe on Twitter at Twitter.com/xgames.

WINTER X GAMES EUROPE 2010

The inaugural Winter X Games Europe will feature nearly 150 men and women from across the globe competing for medals and prize money in the sports of Skiing and Snowboard. Additionally, there will be daily Snowmobile Freestyle demonstrations. The event is the first Winter X Games held outside the United States and brings together ESPN’s world class X Games franchise with Canal+ Events and Tignes Ski & Snowboard Resort.

Together with CANAL + Networks (CANAL +, CANAL + SPORT, Sport +) and ESPN International, Winter X Games Europe will be broadcast live in eight countries, including France, and distributed to 166 countries and territories, including Latin America, Middle East, Pacific Rim, sub-Saharan Africa, Brazil, Israel, Caribbean, North America and Europe.

Canal + and ESPN will collaborate to produce 10 hours of original Winter X Games Europe programming.

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