Hawaii’s JD Sanchez has taken the X Games world by storm in the last 2 weeks. The 16-year-old has won 3 X Games medals in the competitions last 2 event locations.
“It’s a crazy feeling because I would never have thought that I would have even been in the X Games, let alone get 3 medals,” said Sanchez.
Sanchez earning his 1st medal in X Games Osaka where he won the Silver Medal in the Men’s Skateboarding Vert.
Then just a week later, he took to Salt Lake City where he won 2 medals.
“Once I got that 1st one I was like ‘Oh sick, heck yes, my first ever medal, and I was like, you know what? Let’s try to go for another 2 more in SLC and I did it, I was stoked,” said Sanchez.
In SLC, Sanchez finished 2nd in the Men’s Skateboarding Vert, where 2 out of his 3 runs were scored of at least an 84. his 3rd and final run was his best which secured the 2nd place finish.
‘I didn’t land my run first try or I didn’t land it the 2nd run, so on mu 3rd run, I was so nervous. I was like ‘Dude I got to land this, I got to put it down’ and I finally landed my 3rd run which made me so relieved,” said Sanchez.
The Waianae skater also had to battle nerves as he was skating in front of skateboarding legends.
“The crowd out there in SLC was definitely bigger and there’s like so many legends watching, Tony Hawk, Bob Burnquist, Andy Macdonald all those people were watching and that just added on to it,” said Sanchez.
During his 2nd event, Sanchez competed in the Men’s Skateboarding Vert Best Trick.
In this one he came away with a 3rd place finish after doing a move that had never been landed before.
“I landed a trick that’s never been done before and ended up getting a Bronze which I’m stoked on…The trick was called a double flip Indy 540… It felt great, I was honestly surprised because right when the contest started, my 1st try I landed it and during practice I wasn’t getting the closest. so when I landed first try, I was like ‘dang okay, I’m stoked on that,” said Sanchez.
Next up for the 16-year-old he will head to Canada for his next event in just a couple of weeks.