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Barcelona '13 - Spain May 16-19

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Save the Date X Games Barcelona 2013: May 16-19
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      Kelly Clark Foundation

      Kelly Clark talks about her foundation and elevating women's snowboarding.
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      Shaun White throws triple cork

      It's not about tricks. The key to winning the X Games is winning the Mind Games.
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    VdA

    Gretchen Bleiler out of X Games Aspen

    By Devon O'Neil

    Published Thursday January 24, 2013

    Gretchen Bleiler attending the athlete press conference at Winter X Games Aspen 2012.

    Eric Lars Bakke/ESPN Images

    Four-time X Games Aspen Snowboard SuperPipe champion and hometown favorite Gretchen Bleiler withdrew from this week's competition Wednesday night because of lingering effects from a serious training injury last summer.

    Bleiler smashed her knee into her face June 26 while training on a trampoline in Park City, Utah, shattering her eye socket, breaking her nose, lacerating her eyebrow and causing a concussion. She underwent surgery a week later at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. The 31-year-old pipe specialist was aiming to make her season debut this week, but pulled out after practice Wednesday. A representative from the sports agency Stanton and Company, which represents Bleiler, said she didn't feel mentally or physically prepared to compete.

    Attempts to reach Bleiler by cell phone Thursday morning were unsuccessful, but the news did not come as a huge surprise. Bleiler struggled to regain normal vision for months after the accident.

    "I went from 'When can I snowboard?' to 'Am I ever going to be able to see like I used to?' " she told ESPN in mid-December. She originally planned to enter the U.S. Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colo., two weeks ago, but elected to hold off until Aspen.

    Bleiler is tied with Kelly Clark for the most women's SuperPipe crowns in X Games history, winning in 2003, 2005, 2008 and 2010. She finished fourth last year.

    dRelated

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      Spring Training

      U.S. Freeskiing and Snowboarding teams gather for a spring training camp at Mammoth Mountain, Calif.
    • 2R

      Behind Real Women: Jess Kimura

      Go behind the scenes of the making of Jess Kimura's X Games Real Women 2013 video contest entry.
    • 3R

      Behind Real Women: Hana Beaman

      Go behind the scenes of the making of Hana Beaman's X Games Real Women 2013 video contest entry
    • 4R

      Class of 2013

      Since Snowboarder Magazine's annual Superpark event has come to mark the end of the winter, we asked pros in attendance last week what their best stories of the season were.
    • 5V

      Mountain Movers

      Winter X Games course builders, Snow Park Technologies, to star in reality TV show premiering Thursday on the National Geographic Channel
    • 6J

      Gerry Lopez Big Wave Challenge

      Big wave surfing legend, and Mt. Bachelor local, Gerry Lopez has created a course filled with wave-like features for a snowboard contest like nothing you've ever seen

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