\n\t\t\t\t\t\tA major sports and music festival will begin Friday in Sacramento as athletes and organizers make final preparations for the X Games at Cal Expo.Aerial footage from LiveCopter 3 on Thursday showed ramps and competition courses already in place for athletes competing in skateboarding, BMX and motocross.Among those preparing was 16-year-old Lily Erickson, a women\u2019s park skateboard competitor, who said fans can expect an exciting weekend.\u201cYou\u2019re going to expect some good vibes, some good skating, some gnarly skating, and yeah, it\u2019s gonna be so much fun,\u201d Erickson said.Erickson said her interest in skateboarding began with a Christmas gift and quickly became a passion.\u201cIt started when I got my first skateboard for Christmas, and I haven\u2019t stopped since,\u201d she said.She said competing in the X Games is something she has dreamed about for years.\u201cSince I was little, always watching X Games and seeing them be so gnarly and seeing all the good vibes, it\u2019s just so cool,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do it. So being invited to X Games, like, oh my gosh, it\u2019s such a dream, and I love being here.\u201dAthletes were seen practicing on Thursday, including BMX riders and motocross competitors working through final runs before the event begins.In motocross practice, riders launched off steep ramps, performing flips and spins before landing back on course.Sixteen-time X Games medalist Elliot Sloan said the work behind the scenes is more demanding than it may appear.\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that goes into it,\u201d Sloan said. \u201cA lot of these guys make it look super easy.\u201dSloan said action sports continue to progress as younger athletes bring new energy and talent to the competition.\u201cAll these kids are inspiring other kids,\u201d Sloan said. \u201cA lot of these kids don\u2019t even know who some of the older guys are.\u201dBoth Sloan and Erickson said newcomers to the sport should focus on enjoying the experience.\u201cJust have fun,\u201d Sloan said.\u201cJust have fun with it. Don\u2019t put so much pressure on yourself,\u201d Erickson said.The X Games will run through the weekend at Cal Expo.See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tSACRAMENTO, Calif. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
A major sports and music festival will begin Friday in Sacramento as athletes and organizers make final preparations for the X Games at Cal Expo.<\/p>\n
Aerial footage from LiveCopter 3 on Thursday showed ramps and competition courses already in place for athletes competing in skateboarding, BMX and motocross.<\/p>\n
Among those preparing was 16-year-old Lily Erickson, a women\u2019s park skateboard competitor, who said fans can expect an exciting weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re going to expect some good vibes, some good skating, some gnarly skating, and yeah, it\u2019s gonna be so much fun,\u201d Erickson said.<\/p>\n
Erickson said her interest in skateboarding began with a Christmas gift and quickly became a passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt started when I got my first skateboard for Christmas, and I haven\u2019t stopped since,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said competing in the X Games is something she has dreamed about for years.<\/p>\n
\u201cSince I was little, always watching X Games and seeing them be so gnarly and seeing all the good vibes, it\u2019s just so cool,\u201d Erickson said. \u201cI\u2019ve always wanted to do it. So being invited to X Games, like, oh my gosh, it\u2019s such a dream, and I love being here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Athletes were seen practicing on Thursday, including BMX riders and motocross competitors working through final runs before the event begins.<\/p>\n
In motocross practice, riders launched off steep ramps, performing flips and spins before landing back on course.<\/p>\n
Sixteen-time X Games medalist Elliot Sloan said the work behind the scenes is more demanding than it may appear.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot that goes into it,\u201d Sloan said. \u201cA lot of these guys make it look super easy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sloan said action sports continue to progress as younger athletes bring new energy and talent to the competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll these kids are inspiring other kids,\u201d Sloan said. \u201cA lot of these kids don\u2019t even know who some of the older guys are.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Sloan and Erickson said newcomers to the sport should focus on enjoying the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust have fun,\u201d Sloan said.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust have fun with it. Don\u2019t put so much pressure on yourself,\u201d Erickson said.<\/p>\n
The X Games will run through the weekend at Cal Expo.<\/p>\n
See more coverage of top California stories here<\/a> | Download our app<\/a> | Subscribe to our morning newsletter<\/a> | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A major sports and music festival will begin Friday in Sacramento as athletes and organizers make final preparations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375477,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[14852,6948,152104,2691,152107,152106,152108,3410,152105,1741,54311,7861,121,123,122,97518,87507,2429,50862,150682],"class_list":["post-375476","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-andres-valle","tag-athlete","tag-bmx","tag-cal-expo","tag-competition-course","tag-final-preparation","tag-good-vibe","tag-kid","tag-lily-erickson","tag-lot","tag-much-fun","tag-ramp","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-skateboard","tag-sloan","tag-thursday","tag-x-games","tag-x-games-sacramento"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375476","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=375476"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375476\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375477"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375476"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375476"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375476"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}