I gotta say been wrestling with this Henrik thing since everything was so outlandish...
I think though that Henrik is very minimal to blame for anything if anything at all
Giving Henrik a 38 (idk if you can look at this way but a 76% of C grade basically) for a perfectly done switch dub bio 1800, which has never been done before in competition, was truly fucked. Totally insulting. Like either the judges had no idea what was going on, at best, or at worst had it out for Henrik in some way, is it because he is not as clean cut as others, a little louder and possibly seen as obnoxious to some for all the barking and stuff? Honestly that is pretty speculative but I am just at a loss about how they could fuck that up so badly, seems more fucked than any robbery I can remember in recent history (other than the Jesper robbery but that's a whole different discussion lol). It's not like Henrik was saying he needed the gold or to be on the podium or anything, but he just brought attention that on that one hit the judging was totally unacceptably fucked. At best judging was off and at the worst almost targeted. That needed a 45+ bare minimum.
So Henrik bows out of slope. To everyone saying that he's all in it for the 'love of skiing' is probably still mostly true, but I think everyone knows that Henrik is also highly competitive which is part of the reason why he's one of the most decorated comp skiers of all time. Also, that slope course was ridiculous (two massive shark fin features?), and to expect Henrik to throw dub bios against shark fins or whatever else he would want to throw "for fun" if he maybe had the feeling that the judges had it out for him and he wouldn't get scored accordingly is ridiculous and unfair to Henrik. As some others have said, Henrik is not your monkey that needs to be at the start gates 5 minutes early of any event he is invited to for your viewing pleasure. Also, Henrik is getting a little older for a comp skier at 29, and if he has all the medals one could ever want, when he feels rightfully the scoring is obviously fucked up against him, his self-preservation might have kicked in to want to not go at his absolute hardest at this insane two shark finned slope course to go do all he wants to accomplish in filming later in the year.
To the theory that it is a "right of passage" to get completely robbed at times, and that you should just soldier on and make sure to be 5 minutes at the start gate to any event that X Games has been gracious enough to extend you an invite to, why?! These guys prepare all over the world and risk their lives and bodies and to just accept the status quo that sometimes you get a 38 or a 76% or grade for doing something that is pushing the sport to the next level is actually totally unacceptable! The judges should be at least trying to take the judging as seriously as these guys take the skiing. Could that be corrected in some way with like a rescoring feature or some sort of additional judge auditing? Should there maybe be preliminary scoring that gets finalized in like a 10-15 minute review session after the event? If there is anyone to take a stand to counter that sort of thing from happening, wouldn't it be Henrik?
Anyway and then the Knuckle Huck happens and Henrik shows up because that is probably a lot less taxing of an event than the major slope course. He doesn't go too hard at it (although he had some pretty dope and unique hits) and gets a gold out of nowhere. Two wrongs don't make a right. I don't see it as Henrik strong arming X Games for a medal. Henrik just went to the event and skied and maybe didn't go as hard as he could have, what did he do wrong? X Games should have a totally arbitrary and as unbiased as possible system of judging not affected by what events certain athletes bow out of for whatever reason lol.
Maybe Henrik didn't realize the extent of his influence on the X Games and viewership. Maybe he didn't set the best example by quitting when he "didn't get what he wanted". But the judges did really slap him in the face with that 38 score and was more out of wack than most robberies I can remember in recent history (again other than the Jesper one lol) and he really is transitioning more to a film skier in recent years anyway and doesn't need the X Games and results as a more senior competitor at this point. I think Henrik provides enough positive reinforcement for the skiing community in other ways and I think we need to look at the skiers more as humans rather than action figures that we can freak out at for not being at the start gate with a big smile and a winning attitude at any given time regardless of outcome.
End rant, just wanted to at least attempt to put all my thoughts on this weird occurrence somewhere lol.
