When freestyle skier Hanna Faulhaber returns to Aspen for the X Games this week, she should feel right at home.
Faulhaber, now twenty, is an Aspen native, and quickly made her mark in freestyle skiing, placing sixth at the 2022 Beijing Olympics and clinching a World Championships title in women's halfpipe in 2023. She had momentum heading into 2024, but last January she tore her ACL, MCL and meniscus during a training session two weeks before the Aspen-based X Games.
“And I remember immediately I knew that something was wrong,” Faulhaber says. “And I was in the halfpipe training in the same halfpipe that X Games happens, and I was just looking up at the walls knowing that I wouldn't be competing there in two weeks' time. And I think that was probably one of the hardest moments of this recovery — just because X Games means so much to me and my heart, and just in that moment it really hit like pretty hard.”
Two years earlier, she'd won a bronze at the 2022 X Games, a top finish she credits to using the energy of her hometown crowd. “I think that just like calmed my nerves right down, and as soon as I landed my first run, it was just more fun and such an amazing experience to be a part of,” Faulhaber says. “Where you're just skiing under the lights with your best friends, it almost doesn't feel like any other competition."
Because the X Games is one of her favorite events, Faulhaber hopes not only to be back at the level she was skiing before her injury, but also learn some new tricks before this year’s edition of the X Games, as well as other international events and the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics.
“So this year, I'm just going to kind of not push too hard, but still have a great time at X Games and all of the other competitions,” Faulhaber says. “We have the Aspen World Cup here right after X Games, which will be really special because it's another hometown event, and then also World Championships in Switzerland, which will be really, really fun.”
The 2025 Winter X Games are packed with fun, including a full music lineup as well as skiing competitions; they're set for January 23-25 at Buttermilk Mountain. Get more details at Xgames.com.
