X Games Aspen 2026: Chris Coosemans

All right, ladies and gentlemen, as you can see, we are here. We are live at X Games in Aspen, Colorado. We have recorded a handful of interview style podcasts with some of the athletes. We're going to post these as soon as we can. We're sitting here on the table, we're going to chop these up and get these out as soon as possible, just so that it's current and relevant to X Games. So it'll be a little bit out of our normal schedule of every two weeks. I think you guys are going to like this better.

One thing we ask is just have a little patience. There is literally a concert stage right there, and there's people on the loudspeaker all day. So some of the episodes we had to start, stop, start, stop. Some of them we just pushed through. So there's going to be a little bit of background noise. We'll try and clean it up as best as we can, but just have a little patience, sit back and enjoy a few of these athlete episodes here at X Games.

Okay, we're back on the hot seat here at X Games Thursday. I got Chris Coosemans here, and we're going to put you through a little ringer here, but we've got all the athletes here.

Yep.

Hopefully we get a couple minutes and can pull you guys aside and get the rundown.

Yeah, for sure.

For those of you who don't know who this is, who are you?

Chris Coosemans. I'm a freestyle athlete from Canada. I was born and raised out west in Alberta. I live in Ontario now, outside of Toronto, I guess. And yeah, I try to hit the backcountry as much as I can, but sometimes it doesn't work out because of snow conditions. Sometimes it's travel, sometimes I'm too busy doing shows and all that. So, yeah.

How far away are you from Matt?

Not far. I want to say four or five hours.

That's not bad.

Not bad at all. Yeah.

You guys ever link up in the summertime, or just keep it business?

Actually, funny story. We have the same wedding date.

Really?

Yeah. We got the exact same day. Married the same day. So that's kind of funny.

Oh, wow.

Well, that's cool. So where are you at mentally right now? We're obviously here physically in Aspen. Mentally, first X Games, where are you at?

Yeah, I mean, I've been following this since I was a little kid. So mentally it's kind of a hard one to pinpoint, because I feel like I'm a little kid, excited and hanging out with all these riders that I was a fan of before being buddies with them. So it's pretty cool. I feel like it doesn't hit me, and then at random moments I'm like, whoa, I'm here, and I'm an athlete. I'm not just watching from the sidelines. So it's pretty cool.

What was it like when it actually hit you that you are competing at X Games?

Yeah, I got the invite. I was in the middle of a concrete pour at work, and I was just sitting there staring at my phone, and everyone's like, "Hey, let's go." I said, "Okay, you guys got to give me a sec here," and showed everybody the email, and they were all pretty stoked. So we took a minute mid pour and all kind of soaked it all in, because all my boys know how much it means to me. It was a pretty cool moment.

And then I shot it off to close family and friends, and they were all pretty stoked about it. And like I said, it just hits me at weird times. Sometimes it seems normal that I'm going to X Games. Sometimes it just kind of hits me out of nowhere, like, "Oh my god, I'm going." So it's pretty cool.

What are people that aren't close to you not seeing, the behind the scenes stuff that you've been working on since you got that notification?

This year was a tricky one, because I, along with a couple others, didn't get our invite until I think it was the 1st of December.

Yeah.

And I was kind of in a weird situation, because I got hurt at the end of winter last year. So I didn't really have a place to set up and ride, and the sled still needed some work. By the time I was trying to shave off the rest of my workload for the year to free up some time to start all this stuff, it just turned into sled work, compound work, ramp work, just one thing after another. And it was so hard to jam all that into the time that I had. So basically I was just trying to perfect the setup that I thought was best for me in my timeline.

I wouldn't say it was the most ideal going into X Games, but I got more seat time, tried some new tricks. I love my sleds. So coming out of this, I think it's pretty good. But other than that, it's just a lot of work. You don't just go out there and ride your sled. It's 90% work, 10%...

For seconds of show time, right?

Exactly. Yeah.

No, that's crazy. As far as snowmobiles coming back to the show here, what does that mean to you?

Yeah, what does that mean to me? Like I said, I've been a diehard fan of this since I was a little kid. I think I was, I don't know, 12 years old when Turcotte would have been first getting into freestyle. Him and Heath Frisby came to our local ski hill in northern Alberta, and I was watching that thinking, "Oh yeah, I could do that someday." And I just kind of started out as a kid looking up to those guys, and then you kind of meet them here and there, and then start riding together and all that.

And as soon as I got to a level where I could possibly get an invite to X Games, that's when COVID hit. So I've always had that drive to get there, and then it's stuff that's out of my power. And obviously I've been working towards it still, with it in the back of my mind that it might come back someday. So it's cool that we're able to be here and live it, right?

Yeah. It's probably why a lot of you guys still kept pushing that freestyle stuff, even out of season, without X Games being here.

Mhm.

What's the line that you're willing to cross out there? Is there a hard line in the snow, like, I'm not going to cross that? What is the line?

I always tell myself before I ride that I have a line, but sometimes I cross it, sometimes I'm a little shy of it. So that's kind of a tricky one for me. It usually depends on how I'm feeling, and I think it's going to be a big game time decision, really. I tried some tricks at home. I liked how they felt, but they were also to a big airbag, and it's different with the elevation, all that kind of stuff. So it's going to be a game time decision on how far I go, I think.

I'm all for game time decisions.

Yep. Absolutely.

We're excited. Okay, so right before your run, what do you say to yourself?

Kind of depends. If I was in, say, a freestyle event, I'd probably just be going through the tricks in my mind, and the more stressful ones, I'd be kind of thinking back in my head like, "Hey, focus on this. I know how to do this without thinking about it." So I focus on different aspects of a certain trick. But it kind of depends. Speed and style will be different, because I'll want to focus on racing a lot more too. We only have three jumps, right?

So it'll kind of depend, I think. But normally I'm trying to just take deep breaths. I'm not the type to get amped up. That's how I perform better. I like to just take a deep breath, be completely relaxed, and just let my brain do all the work, really.

Love it.

Okay. When this weekend's over, what do you hope those who are here in person, and those who are going to watch online, say about Chris and his runs this weekend? His style and his vibe?

Yeah. I'd say, obviously this is my rookie year. I've been doing it for a long time, but it's a rookie year at X Games. And I would just hope that people see the work that I've put into it and kind of appreciate the backstory of it, because most people that know who I am know that I've been doing it a long time. And people that don't know me, I'd hope that they look at a run that I do and assume, oh, he doesn't look like a rookie, right? But we've got such big competition these days, it's so tough to say. I just want to go out there and enjoy it, right?

Heck yeah. Cool. I got one little lightning round question for you.

Yeah.

Who are you most nervous to compete against this weekend?

Depends on the competition. Freestyle, everybody. But speed and style, I think Turcotte and Willie are going to give everybody a run for their money, because they've got a lot of racing background. I think for the most part, the rest of us competing are pretty green in that sector, or have the same amount of experience. And with only three jumps, there's a lot of guys that have different ideas of what would score higher. So I think for the rest of us it'll be kind of a toss up, but you never know.

Yeah. Cool. Okay, there you have it. Chris Coosemans, here we are. Good luck, buddy. We'll be cheering for you.

Yeah. Thanks, brother.