ESPN X GAMES ANNOUNCES THE SECOND WAVE OF INVITED ATHLETES TO X GAMES 11

ESPN’s X Games announces the athletes who have been invited to compete at X Games 11, to be held in Los Angeles August 4-7, 2005. The event will air live on ESPN, ABC and ESPN Deportes.

The X Games is the definitive annual action sports competition featuring more than 150 of the world’s best athletes competing in: BMX Freestyle, Moto X, Skateboard, Surfing and Wakeboard. X Games 11 will primarily have a finals-only format consisting of the 10 best action sports athletes per sport discipline.

All athletes receiving invitations to compete at X Games are chosen by a sport-specific selection committee. Criteria and timing of invitations varies by sport and discipline, as it is based on the state and event schedules of that particular sport. The only exception is each gold medalist from X Games 10 (2004) receives an automatic invitation to compete.

Information on each committee and its sport’s invitation process can be found on each X Games sport organizer website (links listed below). The sport of Surfing is the only sport in which the athletes are selected by each team’s coach, not by a committee.

The list of athletes is subject to change.

SKATEBOARD (World Cup Skateboarding, www.wcsk8.com)

Big Air
• Jake Brown - Sydney, Australia
• Bob Burnquist - Vista, Calif.
• Jason Ellis - Hollywood, Calif.
• Pierre-Luc Gagnon - Carlsbad, Calif.
• Buster Halterman - Wellsville, Pa.
• Omar Hassan - Costa Mesa, Calif.
• Bucky Lasek - Encinitas, Calif.
• Rob Lorifice - Carlsbad, Calif.
• Andy Macdonald - San Diego, Calif.
• Brian Patch - Westminster, Calif.
• Danny Way - San Diego, Calif.

Street - Men
• Mark Appleyard - Burlington, Ontario, Canada
• Chris Cole - Statesville, N.C.
• Eric Koston - San Bernadino, Calif.
• Andrew Reynolds - Hollywood, Calif.
• Paul Rodriguez - Chatsworth, Calif.
• Geoff Rowley - Huntington Beach, Calif.
• Bastien Salabanzi - Barcelona, Spain

Street – Women
• Elissa Steamer - Ft. Myers, Fla.

Vert - Men
• Jake Brown - Sydney, Australia
• Bob Burnquist - Carlsbad, Calif.
• Sandro Dias - Santa Ana, Calif.
• Pierre-Luc Gagnon - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• Rune Glifberg - Copenhagen, Denmark
• Bucky Lasek - Carlsbad, Calif.
• Andy Macdonald - San Diego, Calif.
• Shaun White - Carlsbad, Calif.

Vert - Women
• Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins - Cardiff by the Sea, Calif.

Vert Best Trick
• Sandro Dias - Santa Ana, Calif.

The rest of the invited athletes should be made available soon - for more info and updates, visit expn.com. Ever wonder how the X-Games got started? Read a short History of the X-Games. Ever wonder how they score tricks and runs? Read the Rules of X-Games.