A Forgotten Canadian Treasure

I had the opportunity to take in some X-Games action today. I try every year to at least catch little bits and pieces of both the Summer and Winter X-Games. Today on the menu I was treated to the Skateboard Vert finals, one of the more historic and traditioned events, dating back to the very first event in 1995.

Now for those who don't know what the X-games are....it's essentially the Olympics for extreme athletes. This is THE yearly event they look forward too. There are other competitions and yearly standings but the be-all-end-all competition is the X-Games.

It was a great event filled with big names that have been around forever (Bucky Lasek, Andy Macdonald) and new young prodigies (12 year old Tom Schaar...HE'S 12!!). One guy I like to cheer for is good ole Canadian kid (well not a kid anymore) Pierre-Luc Gagnon. Arguably the best Canadian athlete competing in the Summer X-games, he once again proved he is the best in the world in the Vert competition by winning his 6th Vert gold medal.

Then I got to thinking....I can't recall if I have ever had any sort of conversation, or heard much, if any, media coverage on a man who has now won 4 of the last 5 Vert comps and 6 in the last 11 years at the X-Games. Now I don't claim to be super involved with the sport, or have friends that are ingrained in the culture, but I can think of many other sports and athletes that I normally wouldn't talk about that have found their way into coverage.

This years with was the 4th in a row for the man they call "PLG". The last man to beat him was a flying tomato known as....Shaun White, a man with only 2 gold medals in Vert, a man just about everyone knows though(although the man dominates multiple sports and is an absolute LEGEND). Bucky Lasek and Brazilian Sandro Dias are the only other skaters since PLG won his first gold medal in 2002, to take top spot.

So quick recap, in the last 11 years, four men have won the Men's Vert competition at the Summer X-Games. Lasek and White have 2 wins each, Dias a single gold, and Canadian Pierre-Luc Gagnon has SIX!

Lets put that in another perspective, the LEGENDARY Tony Hawk, yeah he only has 2 gold medals in Vert.

In all the research I did (and man is it ever hard to find historical info on the X-games) I couldn't find any other vert skater with more gold medals than PLG. It may be an obscure sport that not a lot of people follow, or are even interested it. But Pierre-Luc Gagnon should be a name that people start to recognize. The man is a top athlete in his sport, and well known in the community of skating, but doesn't get the recognition he deserves in the country he hails from.

Canadians are very proud of the athletes they produce. Even when an athlete competes in a sport that may not be the most watched, if a Canadian stands a chance of winning, their fellow countrymen tend to get excited. It may not change peoples mind about the sport, or even get people interested in skateboarding, but the fact is we should be very proud of a man dominating a competition like this, year-in and year-out