ResulTs PhoTo GaLLeRy Audio Aaron Shamy Zoe Kozub Audio requires FREE RealPlayer or NetShow Player

Shamy Footloose

Usually speed climbing involves either the ladder method that alternates right, left (like running up a ladder) or the method of disregarding your feet altogether and pulling yourself wildly and letting your feet find their way (Free your hands and your feet will follow).

Men
Aaron "Ribbit" Shamy made himself the spectacle today by busting out a technique rarely seen in speed climbing. He lunged at holds above his reach, leaving the wall completely and skipping multiple holds in the process. He leapt over three-time X Games speed freak Hans Florine and nearly caught today's champion Vladimir Netsvetaev.

"So her friend went up and did 51, but she didn't speak English well and the marines almost had to pry her off the bars..."

Florine seemed to lose his momentum after losing the big kahuna to Vladimir. He later lost the bronze medal round to Chris Bloch.

"It bums me out. I like to be up on the podium, but my friends won because they were faster than me. I can't be mad at them. With the exposure, the competition is going to get better and better," Hans said after finishing fourth.

Vladimir was focused on the gold and said "I wanted to win very bad, I've always beaten Hans, but this is the first time at the X Games."

But again it was Shamy who gave the crowd something to cheer about with his springing leaps upward. He not only confirmed that he is a Mormon to be reckoned with, but gave the X Games crowd a glimpse of what the future of speed climbing is all about.

Women
When Elena Ovchinnikova stepped to the wall for her final ascent she looked like no other climber. Most of the previous climbers had approached the wall like caged animals, hopping around and flinging their arms around, while all the while their eyes were bouncing off their temples.

The Great Wall

Ovchinnikova stared forward, focusing on nothing. She breathed slowly and would glance up just before exploding upward, extending her long frame in every direction and continually accelerating.

"I was very concentrated because you have to give your maximum effort in a twenty second run," she said after winning Gold. And with such a competitive field, she didn't have it easy. Ovchinnikova's comrade Venera Tcherechneve took third and the Asian X Games speed climbing winner, Yu Yun Yuniar, in a close race, grabbed silver.

Everyone thought the wall was easy, but the competition was incredible. The real fun began later when Shamy got the climbers to check out the marine chin-up station where they were giving out dog tags and T-shirts for the most pull-ups.

Mi Sun stepped up and after 50, the marines realized she could do this the rest of the day and told her to let the other girls try it. The announcer informed the crowd that she does 600 sit ups a day. Like the crowd wasn't impressed enough. So her friend went up and did 51, but she didn't speak English very well and the marines almost had to pry her off the bars.

Then the guys made the marines blush with their one handed and extra wide variations. I'll wait till tomorrow to try with the rest of the humans.

—Hans Prosl, Xtremely humbled for The Mountain Zone