Jul 31, 2008 9:57 am US/Pacific
ER Rooms Stand Alert! X Games Race To A Start
LOS ANGELES
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The L.A. Live entertainment complex will be the site of X Games competitions for the first time, including today's BMX Freestyle Street final. Finals will be held Thursday at Staples Center in Skateboard Big Air and Moto X (motocross) Best Trick. (File)
AP
X Games 14 begins its four-day run today at The Home Depot Center, Staples Center and L.A. Live with additions to its customary array of skateboarding, freestyle motocross, bicycle motocross and motor sports events.
The X Games have added two disciplines in bicycle motocross -- BMX SuperPark and BMX Street -- one in skateboarding -- Skateboard SuperPark -- and a women's motocross race.
Ashley Fiolek, a 17-year-old who is deaf, is considered the favorite in the women's motocross race, which will be held Saturday at The Home Depot Center.
"We are committed to expanding the female participation at this world-class event and the women's motocross circuit demonstrates unbelievable talent deserving recognition on the X Games stage," said Rick Alessandri, the managing director of the X Games Franchise.
The L.A. Live entertainment complex, which opened last year, will be the site of X Games competitions for the first time, including today's BMX Freestyle Street final. Finals will be held today at Staples Center in Skateboard Big Air and Moto X (motocross) Best Trick.
The field for the Skateboard Big Air final includes Jake Brown, a 33-year-old Australian who finished second in last year's competition but is best known for his 46-foot fall to the mega-ramp floor that left him unconscious and knocked off both his shoes.
"I thought he was dead," fellow competitor Pierre-Luc Gagnon told the Los Angeles Times.
Brown suffered a mild concussion, small fractures in his spine and wrist, and bruises to his liver and lung. He was hospitalized for three days before returning to skateboarding a few days later.
"I've tried to put it aside and move forward," Brown told The Times this week before practice. "Obviously, I still remember it, but I've got a lot of energy focused on what I've got to do now."
This is the sixth consecutive year the X Games have been held in Southern California, where they will remain at least through 2009 under a five-year agreement reached in 2005 between ESPN, the event's organizer, and AEG, owner of Staples Center and The Home Depot Center.
(© 2008 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Wire services contributed to this report.)
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