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The Next Generation: Tucker Hibbert
EXPN.com
Dec. 19, 2000

Tucker Hibbert is not the typical tenth grader from Goodridge, Minnesota - high school boy dreams of winning the ultimate sporting event or living up to their father's legacy. But when the fat lady sings, most end up watching from the couch. Fifteen year-old Tucker Hibbert has already lived out the dreams of high school students across the country as he proudly displays an Winter X Games gold medal around his neck after blowing the SnoCross competition away at the 2000 Winter X Games. Competing for the first time in the games at Mount Snow, Vt., Tucker not only won the SnoCross competition but beat his snowmobile racing legend father, Kirk, while doing it.

Tucker rocking the finsh line for Winter X Gold in 2000.

The Hibberts were the first parent-kid combo to compete in the history of the Winter X Games but fifteen year-old Tucker is not the youngest competitor. Kirk was, however, the oldest competitor at Winter X. The father-son duo has been talking about competing together for a couple of years and both think its cool that it has finally happened. Basketball players may be entering the NBA straight out of high school but X athletes are entering competition straight out of elementary school. Snowboarder Shaun White competed in the SuperPipe competition at the mere age of thirteen after placing tenth in the Breckenridge Vans Triple Crown event and winning a slew of amateur competitions. With such young athletes becoming superstars on the SnoCross circuit and in snowboarding, teenagers must wonder how they could get the chance to compete with the best, travel the world and live like rock stars. The answer my friend is an insurmountable love for the sport and all out crazy fun play.

This was Tucker's first appearance at the Winter X Games, but he is not new to SnoCross competition. Tucker was on a sled when he was just a baby and was on a kitty cat as a toddler. Due to his age, he is not allowed to ride in the pro SnoCross circuit, but he did race on the semi-pro scene in end of the 1999 winter season. After watching his son beat him, Tucker's father admitted that Tucker is just "faster than him and that he can't keep Tucker behind him anymore." The elder Hibbert cited two factors key to his son's success: "it's partly natural talent and he's been working on it hard" that gave him the gold last winter at Mount Snow.

Tucker, unlike other young pro riders, is not able to miss school because his grades are so important to him and his parents. Racing is important to the Hibbert family but school comes first as Tucker is till required to show his grades to his sponsors (Artic Cat, Scott, Stud Boy and Pro Concepts among others). He is a natural in the air with expert ability to pick lines and follow them as he exhibited in his gold medal win. His mom does not like the big aerials he is well known for mostly because she does not want him showing off but according to him "she is coming around a little, though." Tucker has been brought up idolizing superstar snocross legends such as his father, Blair Morgan and others. He remembers riding with Morgan on a track by his house and felt "honored" to even ride with him in Winter X Games competition. Is Tucker the next superstar in the SnoCross world? He seems to improve with every race and while he continues his high school career he said he is saving his purse money for "college or maybe a new truck," but only after he gets his license.

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Mount Snow, VT / Feb. 1-4 2001
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