Two events return to Aspen; athletes announced

— -- As the world's best freeskiers, snowboarders and snowmobilers prepare to compete in central Colorado on Jan. 23-26, ESPN on Wednesday announced the sport disciplines and initial wave of invited athletes for X Games Aspen.

Two familiar disciplines, Snowboarder X and Snowmobile Long Jump, return to this year's X Games after brief hiatuses -- Snowboarder X last appeared in 2012, while Snowmobile Long Jump (then called Knockout) last appeared in 2010.

Adding intrigue to X Games Aspen, the competitions will serve as the final major snowsports event before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Ten of the 17 events to be contested in Aspen also will be featured in Russia when the Olympics start two weeks later. Among those events, longtime X Games disciplines Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle and Ski SuperPipe will make their Olympic debuts. They'll join existing Olympic disciplines Snowboard SuperPipe and Snowboarder X as events that made the leap from the X Games to the Olympics.

"We're excited to showcase the talents of over 200 world-class athletes at X Games Aspen," said Scott Guglielmino, ESPN senior vice president of programming and X Games. "Since 1997 the Winter X Games has become the pinnacle event for the world's best, and this year many of these athletes will also be representing their countries at the Olympic Games in Sochi right after X Games Aspen."