ABSTRACT
The term "action sports" broadly refers to a wide range of mostly individualized activities such as BMX, kite-surfing, skateboarding, surfing, and snowboarding, that differed – at least in their early phases of development – from traditional rule-bound, competitive, regulated Western "achievement" sport cultures. This chapter discusses that the X Games as a choreographed effort on the part of ESPN to reach new audiences, and how action sport cultural audiences' responses to this event changed from initial resistance to acceptance, and even celebration, also considering the impact the X Games has had on other mega-sports events, particularly the Olympic Games. It also discusses the X Games politics of global expansion; the strategies and challenges experienced in seeking new audiences, and in producing X Games events in international contexts. Blurring the boundaries between music festival and sporting event, the X Games have also been hugely successful in capturing the imagination of the lucrative youth market.
