After X Games Aspen snub, Shaun White weighs competing in Oslo X

Two weeks after he was noticeably absent from the X Games in Aspen, snowboarder Shaun White says he is considering competing in the event’s inaugural edition in Norway later this month.

In an interview with USA TODAY Sports on Thursday, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said that ESPN — which owns the X Games — did not invite him for the event he has dominated for more than a decade.

“If I’m allowed to go help X Games launch an event for the first time in Norway but I’m not invited to X Games in Aspen, I don’t know,” said White, who has 15 X Games gold medals. “I don’t know what’s really happening on their side of things. I was uninvited. It’s a peculiar situation to be in, I guess.”

An ESPN spokesman previously told the Denver Post that White was not invited to the Aspen X Games last month.

ESPN instituted new criteria this year in which the podium finishers would automatically be invited back. White finished fourth in the halfpipe in 2015.

He decided not to compete in 2014 because he wanted to focus on the Sochi Olympics, which were a couple weeks after the X Games.

According to a person close to the situation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, White and his inner circle can be difficult to deal with, a reason he wasn't invited to Aspen. That person stressed that organizers want to invite athletes who are excited to compete in the event.

Earlier reports indicated White was not invited because of comments he made during the Forbes Under 30 Summit in October.

At that event, White — who has 23 X Games medals — said he has talked with ESPN about its global X Games expansion. In 2014, he purchased a majority share in Air + Style, a snowboarding event that brings big air competitions to cities along with a music festival.

Air + Style Los Angeles had its inaugural event last year and kicks off this year Feb. 20-21.

According to a Forbes article from the summit, White said, “X Games went global, it was a huge failure… they used the same marketing everywhere [and] ended up diluting the brand.”

ESPN did expand the X Games to Tignes, France; Foz do Iguacu, Brazil; Munich and Barcelona in 2013 but did not continue those the following year. The company cited revenue as the main concern, but saw the events as a success in other regards. Attendance that year was lowest in Foz do Iguacu, which is in the southern part of Brazil, but topped 115,000 for four of the six cities. Los Angeles drew 92,000, as well.

ESPN has continued its staple events for winter X Games in Aspen and summer X Games in Austin.

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White said he liked the idea of expanding events globally, which is why he bought into Air + Style. That long-running event is hosted in Innsbruck, Austria, Beijing and Los Angeles each year, and it will expand in 2017.

“(At the summit), they asked why do you think the X Games didn’t work out globally? I said, ‘Hey, I think that maybe that some of the things that they’re doing are a little outdated. They haven’t changed the way they do things with the event, with the commentating, with the camera angles, all these things, in many years,’” White said.

“I guess they took offense to it and it was uninvited to the (Aspen) event, which is a bit unfortunate because I meant it as constructive criticism. Bottom of my heart, I do think they need to change the way they do things but here we are.”

White said he plans to compete in the Oslo X Games, which begin in two weeks and include the snowboard superpipe competition on Feb. 25.

Because the Oslo event is publicly-funded, ESPN has to invite riders based on the World Snowboard Tour points list. When the final invitations went out in December, White was fresh off his Dew Tour win and in the top-14 on that list.

As for X Games Aspen, that remains a question whether ESPN will invite him in 2017.

“I’m invited to the event in Norway, so I think I’ll probably partake in that and see what happens from there,” White said. “But as far as it goes with competing in the X Games in the United States, I have no plans to.”