Extreme Sports

TURN on TV sports this fall and you will see more evidence of an evolution in progress: traditional lineups (the baseball playoffs and World Series, football, basketball and hockey) cheek-by-jowl with nontraditional ones (extreme sports, professional poker). Viewership trend lines tell some of the tale: Cornerstones like the NFL and NBA still pull in throngs, but audience drift, especially among the young, is toward strategy and risk of the Las Vegas and X Games varieties.

The skateboard street competition Thursday afternoon at the X Games had more obstacles than just rails, ramps and benches. The nine competitors also had to withstand heat that scorched the course outside Staples Center. Paul Rodriguez Jr. of Chatsworth, the event's defending champion, didn't wilt from the heat or pressure. Rodriguez, 20, performed a variety of tricks on the challenging layout to average 92.50 points and defeat Greg Lutzka of Huntington Beach (85.

Jeremy Stenberg's "back-flip, no-footer, one-hander" earned him his first X Games medal -- a gold, no less -- as he emerged the winner Thursday evening of the Moto X best-trick contest. But was it the best trick?

One by one, the featured athletes for the 11th X Games were introduced on the sun-splashed balcony overlooking the Staples Center parking lot. Danny Way, whose 200-foot-tall illustration served as a backdrop on a building that fronted the Los Angeles skyline, limped through the crowd of reporters and photographers with cane in hand Wednesday, his right ankle supported by a brace and a thick wrap of athletic bandage.

Jamie Bestwick is one of the most well-known athletes living in State College, Pa., though you'll never see him in a Penn State uniform. Bestwick, 34, is a two-time X Games gold medalist in the BMX freestyle vert competition. Raised in Riddings, England, he moved to State College in 1998 to pursue a career as a BMX rider. State College is home to Woodward Camp, a state-of-the-art BMX training facility that features 17 parks.

Danny Way made history at the X Games last summer. He made ancient history last month. Way, who set records outside Staples Center a year ago for the longest, highest jump on a skateboard in the big air competition, cleared the Great Wall of China four weeks ago, becoming the first person to accomplish that feat without motorized assistance. If that wasn't exciting enough, Way's name was officially inscribed on the centuries-old barrier, the first Westerner to receive the honor.

Ten television cameras will track Shaun White as the red-headed skateboarder soars high above the Staples Center arena floor during Friday night's vert competition. ESPN clearly hopes that the 18-year-old will generate some "SportsCenter" moments by pulling a new trick or two during his 2005 X Games debut. But the subsequent volley of slow-motion television replays also will capture the clothing labels and stickers adorning White's helmet and skateboard.

No racer has been more successful changing disciplines than Jeff Ward. Ward, a 44-year-old Newport Beach resident, was a supercross champion long before the sport's most famous name, Jeremy McGrath, won his first race. He quit in his prime to begin open-wheel racing and soon began a string of top-five finishes at the Indianapolis 500. Ward accepted a late offer to drive in the Indy 500 in May, but his passion the last two years has returned to two-wheel racing.

Cara-Beth Burnside has never been shy about going after what she really wanted. When she turned 10, her grandmother bought her a pair of roller skates, but Burnside had her heart set on a new skateboard to use at the skateboard park that had just opened near her home in Orange. So Burnside took her birthday money and bought one. And those roller skates? "I don't think I ever used them again," she said. "They just sat there collecting dust."