Buyten to defend gold in X Games

Carson City resident and professional Freestyle rider Matt Buyten will be back to defend his gold medal at X Games X to be held Aug. 5-8 in Los Angeles.

This year marks the 10th annual X Games where more than 150 of the world's best action sports athletes will compete in a variety of sport categories for prestigious medal honors and prize money.

Buyten, who made his X Games debut last year, has been invited to participate in Freestyle and Step Up this year in the Moto X competition. Buyten had a successful 2003, winning an X Games gold medal in Step Up, and finishing third and fourth in the IFMA and Vans Triple Crown series season rankings, respectively. With multiple victories at IFMA events this year, Buyten is a serious contender for a medal at X Games X.

X Games Moto X disciplines were derived from elements of Motocross and Supercross racing. On 125cc or 250cc dirt bikes, riders put their creativity to the test in each of the different disciplines. Freestyle is a modern relative to Supercross events with 6,000 yards of dirt shaped into a motocross course complete with gaps, doubles and hips. This course offers riders both ramp-to-dirt and dirt-to-dirt jumps, but the rider with the deepest bag of tricks has the best chance of winning gold. Step Up pits rider versus gravity as each athlete sits a mere 25 feet from a dirt face, which is designed to launch the rider vertically up and over a crossbar.

The Staples Center will serve as the primary venue for this year's X Games and will host such competitions as Aggressive In-line Skate, Bike Stunt, Moto X and Skateboard. In addition, the X Games' newest venue, the Home Depot Center, will host Bike Stunt Dirt, Moto X Freestyle and Moto X SuperMoto, which is making its debut this year. Wakeboarding will take place at the Long Beach Marine Stadium, and Surfing will be held at Huntington Beach Pier, one of California's premier surfing venues.

X Games X will provide 14 hours of original live programming from August 5-8 to be featured on ESPN and ABC. Programming windows will be at 6 p.m. and 7 p.m. and 4 p.m. on ABC. In addition, ESPN2 will present daily late-night highlight programs from August 6-9, resulting in 18 hours of coverage for X Games X. Overall, this year's X Games coverage will reach 191 countries and territories in 11 languages worldwide via ESPN International. A full competition and television schedule can be found at www.expn.com.

ESPN first developed its X Games franchise in 1995. The X Games, Winter X Games, EXPN 2Day and X Games Global Championship are shown on ESPN and ESPN2. The brand has also grown to include international X Games events, EXPN.com, EXPN Radio, the large format film ESPN's Ultimate X and X Games branded skateparks.