Selema Masekela Will Return This Year to Host ESPN’s X Games

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Selema Masekela will return as host of ESPN’s X Games.

What's Happening:

  • After a 10-year hiatus, the X Games will be bringing back Selema Masekela to host the event taking place in Aspen, Colorado, on January 27–29.
  • Along with Masekela, Victoria Arlen will be co-hosting.
  • You can also see Masekela host an X Games preview show on ESPN on Sunday, January 15.
  • Masekela hosted the games for 13 years but departed in 2012 to join NBC Sports. Since then, he has worked on the Winter Olympics as well as other projects.
  • You can see this year's games on ESPN and ABC, with some events also streaming on YouTube and Twitch.

What They're Saying:

  • “I hope that we can get people fired up on the past, and also help them to realize that the present has actually never been better,” Masekela says. “I hope that you know, the people who were kids then and who are parents now can get psyched to sit with their kids, and that this is something that can be generational, that they can watch with families and pass it on.”
  • “Without the X Games, the relevance of cool that the Olympics has today would not exist,” Masekela says. “I firmly believe that the implementation of snowboarding and freeskiing and skateboarding and BMX into the Olympics, was a life saving injection in being relevant to culture. And that all came from X Games, there’s no other event that has been able to do that for a subculture.”