Mike Dawsy/U.S. Ski and Snowboard
X Games will be moving to a global, team-based format in 2026, according to an announcement on Tuesday, June 13.
The shift is a change from its current event model, which features two domestic events each year — a winter competition focusing on snowsports and a summer competition featuring skateboarding, BMX and motocross. The league will be modeled after Formula One and will feature teams of athletes from multiple action sport disciplines who will compete for individual and team points in order to earn both individual and team prize purses.
The league will continue to showcase seasonal action sports from summer and winter disciplines. Each league will initially be composed of four global events and four teams, but the X Games plans to expand the program eventually.
According to ESPN, the competition schedules will include X Games signature events as well as strategic collaborations with existing competitions.
X Games hopes that the team format will provide athletes with stability that is often absent in most action sport circles. The league will give athletes an annual income, benefits and additional commercial opportunities.
Teams have yet to be selected, but they will eventually be formed by an industry-wide draft where athletes are nominated. Athletes not selected to be part of a team will remain eligible as alternate athletes.
Winter Park’s Svea Irving and Lawrenceburg, Indiana’s Nick Goepper are a few of the professional, winter sport athletes that have posted their early reactions to the news. Goepper posted on his Instagram story that X Games is “innovating and bringing fresh ideas to the table” while Irving chimed in on her own Instagram story saying, “This is huge.”
Source Link
