Kevin Jones

He was born Kevin Christopher Jones in Sacramento, California, on January 23, 1975. As a boy he took up skateboarding and in his late teens became intrigued by snowboarding after seeing popular skateboarders John Cardiel and Noah Salaznek snowboarding in the film Riders on the Storm. Jones was seventeen when he first began snowboarding and a year later he entered his first competition. Almost from the start, he showed unusual talent for the sport, quickly developing into one of the young sport's emerging stars. To stay close to the slopes, he moved a hundred or so miles east of Sacramento to Truckee, not far from Squaw Valley where he began training.

Throughout the history of the X Games, which were launched in 1995 by the ESPN cable TV network, Jones has been a dominant force in the snowboard events, which consist of two main forms of competition—big air and slopestyle. Slopestyle events are judged competitions in which one rider at a time goes through a series of jumps and other obstacles, performing tricks along the way. In big air competition, boarders perform tricks, including flips and multiple rotations, while airborne. In the Summer X Games of 1997, Jones took the silver medal in big air competition. At the 1998 Winter X Games he won silver in slopestyle and bronze in big air. Jones got the gold medal in big air competition at the Summer X Games of 1998.

In 1999, Jones took silver and bronze medals in slope-style and big air, respectively, at the Winter X Games. In big air competition at the Summer X Games of 1999, Jones failed to medal, finishing in fourth place. He really performed brilliantly in slopestyle at the Winter X Games of both 2000 and 2001, taking home the gold medal in the event both years. In slopestyle, he went bronze at the 2000 Winter X Games and placed fifth at the 2001 event. For his impressive performance in 2001, Jones was named Best Freestyle Rider of the Year in the annual Transworld Rider's Poll, an honor that he again received the following year. At the Winter X Games of 2002, there was no big air competition, but Jones finished fourth in the slopestyle event. Jones has been linked romantically with gold medal-winning female boarder Tara Dakides.