X Games Aspen 2026: Rasmus Johansson

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 at 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 are 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.

The cold is not going well with the equipment, but we're back. We've got another X Games athlete series going on. Our goal is to try and get as many of you guys over here and just kind of get to know you a little bit more, and the overall experience here at X Games. So we're going to put you through a little lightning round of questions.

Yeah.

For those who are listening to the Sledder Cast podcast and may not recognize you without a helmet on, on a snowmobile.

Yeah, it could be.

Who we got here?

My name is Rasmus Johansson. I'm 31 years old, from Kiruna, Sweden. Been riding snowmobiles pretty much my entire life, doing a lot of backcountry riding all the time. And then I got really interested in doing freestyle, because I looked up to a lot of the guys I've been competing against in the X Games. So I got interested in that and started working, and yeah, now I'm here.

So when you're not on a snowmobile, what are you doing during the months where you're not sledding? What do you occupy your time with?

Depends on the season, but when I'm not doing freestyle shows or riding sleds in the backcountry, my father has a snowmobile rental company back home in the mountains and also in Kiruna, my hometown. So I've been doing a lot of that the last couple years, helping out. We do a lot of snowmobile rentals and guided tours, and also corporate events with these tipi tents that you can build together and have dinners and parties in.

So you guys rent those out, or you put on the parties?

Yeah, we rent the tents out, and we can fix the whole event. You can have snowmobile tours or dog sledding or snowshoeing.

Okay.

And other stuff. So that's what I'm doing pretty much when I'm not riding sleds professionally. And during the summer sometimes, my hometown is a big mining town.

Okay.

Mining for iron ore. So I've been working a little bit in the mines every now and then. So yeah, I've got something to do pretty much.

Stuff to do. Yeah.

So where you at mentally? We're on Sunday, the last day. Friday was a pretty big day for snowmobiling with freestyle. I know we've had some conversation back and forth over the weekend. Maybe walk us through that night, and kind of where you're at mentally with going out there and seeing one of your buddies take a hit. How are you mentally now, going into today, from all that?

Yeah, I mean, me and Marcus were practicing together back home, and both of us got injured pretty much at the same time. I broke my thumb pretty bad on December 23rd, so I had to do surgery on it December 29th. The doctors told me I should have the cast, and I had three pins sticking through the whole thumb and then two smaller ones in here, and they told me I had to have them in for four weeks. And I told them, man, I'm going to Aspen to compete in X Games. They said no, not possible. I wouldn't have been that long until I got to Aspen.

But we planned everything. We shipped our snowmobiles over here, got everything set up at Arrowhead, so we've been staying there a couple days tuning and testing. And I flew here with the cast on and the pins in. And Marcus helped me pull the pins out in the hotel room.

Well, you showed me pictures, and I mean...

With vise grips.

Yeah. The pin was like that big, it looked like.

Yeah. It was sticking through the whole thumb. It was from here.

So where do you pull it out? From back here or up here?

No, from up here.

So he just pulled it out.

You can't see it now, but the skin is peeling off, so that's where it was sticking out a bit. That didn't hurt that much, but my whole body was kind of shaking because it felt weird. But yeah, we pulled the pins out, and I started moving my thumb straight after, and I could feel every day it's getting better and better.

And after three or four days, I decided to test jump. And of course it hurt a lot, but I got a few hits in. Mentally, I didn't know if I was going to make it to X Games and be able to compete with my condition. But turns out I could. I haven't had any practice really, so these last couple of weeks have been a really emotional roller coaster.

Yeah. On a huge stage, right?

Yeah. And then I didn't even feel really good at practice. Of course I did a couple flips and flip combos, but when you haven't been practicing in a while, it takes some time to get back into it. Especially nowadays, we practice to airbags and stuff, and here it's snow landings. And big shout out to X Games, these landings are super safe. They are a really good angle.

Yeah, super nice.

So if you land perfectly, it's very smooth. So yeah, didn't feel really good at practice, but you kind of have to ease into it. And then on Friday, when we had the freestyle, on the warm up I didn't feel good. But then when it was showtime, I kind of just locked in. I just turned my head off and locked in, and I was able to put down, for me, a solid run, because I had pretty much no practice. I did all of the tricks that I wanted to do. I could have possibly made them a lot bigger, but you've got to practice a lot to feel safe and to extend perfectly.

And no, that felt awesome. I was so pumped after the last jump. I was super happy, and of course I felt really good after that.

And then my buddy Marcus went out and had a huge crash.

Did you know he was starting off with that?

Yeah, I did. He told me he was going to do that trick. He showed me he's been practicing it and he had it dialed back home. He showed me two days before that he was going to do it.

Oh man, that's cool. He's standing up. So for those that haven't seen it yet, maybe we'll overlay it, but he's standing up on the back of his seat and going to do...

Yeah, it's kind of like a surfer takeoff to a kiss of death flip. And I've seen the videos from back home when he's practicing, and they are huge. But yeah, that was really tough to see. I went back there when they put him on the sledge and pulled him out of the track, and it was tough to see. I had a hard time getting back mentally after that, because it's not fun to see your buddy go down like that, and you don't know what will happen to him, if it's really bad. And now the outcome was, I would say, good.

Good.

It could have been way worse. He broke one rib, the first rib underneath your collarbone, and then contusions to his neck and contusions to his lungs, and concussion. So in my opinion, he made it out pretty good. It could have been way worse.

And yeah, I had a hard time mentally getting back in the game after that. I felt straight away on my second run, when I went off the first hit, my timing was off. And then I just thought, okay, just put down a run and walk out of here safe, you know?

Yep.

But yeah, I'm super pumped to be back here at X Games. It's been six years since last time, and I love it. And now on Sunday, I wasn't supposed to do Speed and Style, but since we're a few riders short now, I'm in the Speed and Style. So I'm going to go do that in like three hours.

So what's the game plan? You weren't coming over here to X Games with that in mind, and now you're on the stage with everyone. What is it taking mentally? Are you just going out there and winging it, or do you have a pretty good idea of what the blueprint and the program is going to look like?

Yeah, I have a pretty good plan for it. I know what it takes to be on the podium, and I know the guys I'm racing, a few of them are a lot faster than me because they race way more than me. I think I've been on a snocross track maybe three to five times, just practicing. Never competed in snocross or anything. So I have big tricks, I just have to dial in, lock in and make it happen. And then of course try to have smooth speed over all the bumps and corners and stuff. But yeah, it's going to be a tough one for sure.

Who are you matched up against first round?

I'm matched up against Chris Coosemans.

Okay.

So we'll see. I generally have a little bit bigger tricks than him, so that's in my favor for sure. But we'll see who's the fastest out there on the course.

Awesome. What's X Games like back home, and what does it mean to you? You and Marcus were the only two from Sweden, right? I guess from the Scandinavian countries too, right?

Yeah.

So you're kind of holding it down for that whole region over there, right?

Yeah. I mean, compared to the US, Sweden is a small country, but we're standing strong in the freestyle game. It's me, Marcus, and Bodin was supposed to be here.

I missed him too. He said he had a little accident or something.

Yeah, I think he was in Germany doing shows on his bike, and I heard that he had kind of a flat tire and came up short and bounced off the bag and injured himself pretty badly. So unfortunately he couldn't be here, but otherwise we would be three Swedes. And we have some upcoming riders too in Sweden. Marcus's brother Thomas, he was actually here too, watching.

Oh, cool.

Yeah. So he's also riding freestyle, and he's been stepping in for Marcus on the Masters of Dirt tour. He did a show in, I think it was, Zagreb. So he's also learning all the time, and you can see they're progressing. And then we have Eddie Marquist, who I think has only been riding freestyle for two years or something, and has big regular tricks and just started flipping. So hopefully they...

Got some boys coming up in the works.

Yeah.

And now it sounds like X Games snowmobiles will continue.

I really hope so.

Yeah, I was going to ask you that. What's the vibe on that side of the fence? Are we feeling like X Games is paying attention and it's going to stick going forward?

Yeah, I hope so. It sounds positive. Everything I heard and the people I talked to, it sounds really positive. When we were doing the freestyle comp, it was a huge crowd.

The crowd was massive.

Yeah. So that's really good for the sport. And of course now we have an oval course with the two NextGen ramps. And this new ramp, I like it better than the old Super Kicker because it's smoother. It's a little bit longer transition. So you can do big tricks off it, and we just have to go from there and see what we can evolve in the sport trick-wise, if it's possible to do double flips or front flips off it, and bigger tricks.

Yeah. Well, what do you hope people take away? The fans are going to come out here later today and watch Rasmus holding it down for Sweden. What do you hope they take away from your run and your performance tonight?

I think, hopefully I can lay down the bigger tricks of my repertoire and score good from that, and also that I can keep my speed up and not mess around too much. But it's really tough to do both snocross and freestyle. You've got to be really mentally prepared and locked in. And of course at this elevation it's also harder on your lungs to breathe while riding. You've got to stay so focused, man. And yeah, I think I have a good run coming, and I'm looking forward to it.

Awesome. And so are we. It'll be action-packed, and I'm excited to see all of these fans that are here. As soon as those engines start firing up, dude, it's like a mass exodus coming over. So Rasmus, we wish you the best, and a safe, clean competition tonight and safe travels back home.

Thank you very much.

Appreciate you, bud, for stopping by.

Appreciate it for sure. Thanks.