 HIbberts having golden time
by David Boroff, ESPN.com
MOUNT SNOW, Vt. -- While Kirk and Tucker Hibbert battled it out in the Winter X Snocross finals on Friday, Teresa Hibbert may have had the toughest job of all. She had to watch.
Teresa looked on as her 15-year-old son Tucker captured the Snocross gold medal. Teresa's husband Kirk, a longtime Snocross champion, finished fifth in the same race. While watching her husband and son come in-and-out of view going approximately 60 mph on Beaver Hill Run, Teresa was not necessarily thinking about who wins and who doesn't.
|  | | Tucker (foreground) and dad Kirk (right) found the results pleasing. |
"I just want them to both finish and not get hurt," Teresa Hibbert said. "I'd like to see them finish in one piece, and if they do well besides, it's icing."
It was pretty rich icing, as Tucker Hibbert became the youngest gold medalist in Winter X history. The Hibberts also made history in another way. Kirk and Tucker are the first father-and-son combination ever to participate together in the X Games. Kirk, 42, is also the oldest athlete competing at Mount Snow.
Until Friday, the two had competed in the same heat only once in their careers. On Friday, they were in the same heat twice, including the finals. In one of the qualifying heats, Tucker trailed his dad midway through the four-lap race, but then passed him after going over a jump. That maneuver helped the teen-ager finish second in the heat. He said it was strange having to pass his father in the race.
"It's a lot of fun," said Tucker, who is a sophomore at Lincoln High School in Thief River Falls, Minn. "But then I went to pass him, I don't know, I was kind of hesitant."
"I forgot he was even in there until he passed me," Kirk said. "It's good. I can ride off his lines (from behind)."
Tucker has been competing in Snocross for two years. He finished second in all three qualifying heats Friday before winning it all. Tucker credits much of his success to -- who else -- his father. In fact, Tucker started riding snowmobiles when he was 2 years old, so he has been learning from his father most of his life.
Kirk, though, also benefits from his son's participation.
"It's fun," said Kirk, who doesn't plan on retiring any time soon. "We help each other out with the lines and set-ups. It makes us both more competitive."
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