Joe Parsons beats childhood friend in Snowmobile Speed & Style final at Winter X Games 15
There was no reason for Joe Parsons to not add the night of 28th January, 2011, in his list of most memorable nights. He had just won himself his second gold medal in the Snowmobile Speed & Style event, beating his close friend Heath Frisby in the final
at the Winter X Games 15 (WX 15). Frisby ended up with a silver medal. Cory Davis prevailed over Daniel Bodin in the battle for bronze.
The Snowmobile Speed & Style event made a comeback to the Winter X platform after two years. This contest tests the riders on both, the speed and the style, in a combination that consists of the SnoCross-type racing and Freestyle-type tricks.
The defending champion, Joe Parsons, made it to the final of this year’s Speed & Style after beating Cory Davis in the semi-finals. His opponent was none other than Heath Frisby, his close friend since childhood, and the top seeder in this year’s contest.
Frisby had paved his way into the final by defeating this year’s Freestyle gold medallist, Daniel Bodin, in the semi-final.
If anybody was under the impression that these two would go easy on each other because of their friendship, they could not have been more mistaken. Both the riders gave their 100 percent in the final and showed their determination to win. Frisby managed
to earn better style points than Parsons, the judges getting more impressed by his Tsunami flip and Indian Air Super flip than by Parsons’ no-handle back flip, Super flip and Nac Nac flip.
However Frisby’s unsuccessful attempt to pull off a no-handle back flip, due to his foot-strap getting stuck and preventing him from fully extending on the trick, reduced his advantage. Parsons now required to win by only four seconds to clinch the victory.
He achieved this target quite comfortably, defeating his friend-c*m-opponent by over seven seconds instead, and deprived him of victory. It was Parson’s second consecutive gold in this discipline. Frisby took home the silver medal after putting up a commendable
fight against the defending champion.
“I was just stoked to be one-two with Friby, because that was our dream final, having grown up together and being good buds,” Parson said.
In the battle for bronze, Alaska’s Cory Davis went head-to-head with Danial Bodin, the Swedish rider who celebrated his first gold medal in the Snowmobile Freestyle event just a couple of days ago. Bodin entered the battle as a favourite, but Davis managed
to best him and take the bronze. Davis had won the bronze in the last Winter X Speed & Style contest as well that was held in 2009.
After an intense battle between Joe Parsons and the legendary Levi LaVallee in 2009 at the Winter X Games 13, it was Parsons who had walked home with the gold. People were looking forward to another showdown between the two, but LaVallee had to sit out of
this year’s WX after suffering an injury during the preparation of ESPN's “Red Bull: New Year. No Limits.” last December, ending everyone’s hope of watching these two square it off again.
This year’s medal was Parsons’ seventh WX Snowmobile medal and his third gold. He is now on a tie with Levi LaVallee on the all-time list for most medals.
“I just turned 23 and that's like old age. When I'm older and can hang them up and look at what I've accomplished, it will be really cool. Right now, I just want more.”
Would Parsons leave LaVallee behind in the race for medals, or would it be the Launchin’ Levi shining brighter than Parsons in the end? We will just have to sit and wait for next year’s Winter X Games to find out.
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