After sharpening her skis and skills these last two months, Maggie Voisin is ready to return to the spotlight of X Games.
Just days after her 17th birthday, the Whitefish freeskier and Olympian was officially invited back to the premier winter sports competition in Aspen, Colorado next month.
X Games Aspen is Jan. 28-31 at Buttermilk Mountain. Many of the top winter athletes in the world will compete at the annual event, which will be televised live on ESPN and ABC.
Voisin will return to the slopestyle competition two years after claiming silver and becoming the youngest medalist on skis at the elite event.
That year Voisin barely missed gold after an eye-opening run that included a switch 1080, a rare, spinning aerial that was first landed in competition by Canadian Kaya Turski four years ago. Turski, a multiple X Games gold medalist who returned from ACL surgery after only five months, ended up edging Voisin’s score of 90 with a 91.33.
Voisin hopes to follow a similar path as her Canadian colleague. The Whitefish native is returning from her own knee injury, which she suffered during competition at Dew Tour in December 2014. It was her second serious injury in the span of a year, after she broke a bone in her leg at the Winter Olympics.
Over the past year, Voisin has rehabilitated her knee and worked to regain her strength. In November, she returned to the ski slopes for the first time since last year’s injury. She skipped the Dew Tour event at Breckenridge earlier this month.
The women’s slopestyle final at X Games is scheduled for 12:30 p.m., Friday, Jan. 29.
Emma Dahlstrom is the reigning champ in women’s slopestyle. Her top score last year was 90.33. Keri Herman placed second with an 86.66 run and Dara Howell earned third with an 82.