X Games 16: The 25 Biggest Stars in Summer X Games History

The streets of downtown Los Angeles will be packed with action from July 29 through August 1 with the 16th annual Summer X Games event.

Skateboards, bicycles, and motorcycles will flood the thoroughfares between the Staples Center, Nokia Theatre, the Los Angeles Coliseum, and L.A. Live; and tons of heart-pumping, death-defying feats are guaranteed.

As a prelude to X Games 16, the following frames highlight 25 of the most well-known legends ever to compete in the Summer X Games.

Anthony Napolitan

Anthony Napolitan made his competitive debut at X Games 12 in Los Angeles by winning a bronze medal in Dirt. Napolitan earned another bronze in Big Air competition at X Games 13, where he landed the first-ever double front flip in X Games competition.

Ryan Sheckler

At only 13 years old, Ryan Sheckler captured gold in Street Skateboarding at X Games Nine in Los Angeles, nailing every trick he attempted. In doing so, Ryan became the youngest athlete ever to medal at an X Games event.

Returning to L.A. for X Games 14 in 2008, he once again brought home the gold in the Street category.

Shaun White

Shaun White took home his first X Games medal by earning a silver in the Vert at X Games 11 in Los Angeles in 2005. His first gold came in 2007 at X Games 13 in the same event, and he also added a bronze in the Vert at X Games 14.

Both a snowboarder and a skateboarder, White also has two Olympic gold medals to his credit in the Halfpipe.

Pierre-Luc Gagnon

Pierre-Luc Gagnon began competing professionally in 1992, however it wasn't until 2002 that he made his X Games debut at X Games Eight in Philadelphia, where he proceeded to win two gold medals, one each in Vert and Vert Best Trick.

Throughout the course of his X Games career, Gagon has won 14 medals. He took home four golds altogether, one each in the Vert, Vert Double, Big Air, and Best Trick categories.

Ricky Carmichael

Ricky Carmichael's first X Games gold medal came at X Games 13 in the Moto X Racing category. He also earned golds at X Games 14 and 15, both in the Moto X Step Up. Today, Carmichael is truck racing for Turner Motorsports in the Camping World Truck Series.

Tommy Clowers

Tommy Clowers is one of the most widely-recognized Moto X athletes to ever appear in the X Games. He has four X Games medals to his credit, and is best-known for his win at X Games Six, where he recorded a record-breaking height of 35 feet in the Moto X Step Up.

Tarah Gieger

Tarah Gieger made her mark on the X Games scene by capturing the gold medal in the first-ever women's supercross race at X Games 14 in 2008. She also made history when she became the first female to land a back flip to dirt on a motorcycle in competition.

Danny Harf

Danny Harf has dominated the sport of wakeboarding since he began competing in the year 2000.

He has four X Games gold medals to his credit, his first coming in the inaugural wakeboarding event at X Games Seven in Philadelphia. His most stunning accomplishment is that he became the first person ever to nail a 1260 in competition.

Simon Tabron

Simon Tabron captured his first X Games medal by earning a silver at X Games 13 in Los Angeles. He has a total of seven X Games medals—two silver and five bronze. He is best known for doing back-to-back 900s in the BMX Vert in 2007—an X games first.

Mike Metzger

Commonly known as "The Godfather of Freestyle Motocross," Mike Metzger burst onto the X Games scene in 2002 taking golds in the Freestyle and Big Air categories, while earning a silver in the Step Up. In the same competition, he landed the first-ever back flip in Moto X Freestyle.

Jamie Bestwick

Many consider Jamie Bestwick to be the best BMX Vert rider ever.

He earned a bronze medal in his first X Games in Rhode Island in 1996. He won his first X Games gold in 2000, and after ending Dave Mirra's three-year reign in the Vert, won every single competition he entered in 2005.

Bestwick has a total of seven X Games gold medals to his credit.

Mat Hoffman

Mat Hoffman is clearly one of the original pioneers of BMX ramp riding.

He has three X Games gold medals total, and has invented more than 100 BMX revolutionary tricks. His company, Hoffman Promotions, has assisted ESPN in the coverage of several X Games productions.

Andy Macdonald

Surpassing Tony Hawk at X Games 14 in L.A., Andy Macdonald holds the record for most X Games skateboarding medals with 15 total.

Macdonald has been involved in promoting the growth and progression of competitive skateboarding since his early teens. He is also well known for skateboarding down the marble hallway of the White House and delivering an anti-drug speech in 1996.

Jeremy McGrath

Often referred to as "The King of Supercross," Jeremy McGrath didn't make his mark in the X Games until he was 34 years old, when he claimed a silver medal in the Supermoto at X Games 11. He returned the following year to earn a silver in the Step Up and seventh place in the Supermoto.

Jeremy Lusk

Jeremy Lusk dominated the Freestyle and Best Trick categories in Moto X at X Games 14 in Los Angeles by capturing one silver and two gold medals.

Jeremy passed away in February of the following year after crashing while attempting to land an Indian Air Backflip in a competition in Costa Rica.

Danny Way

In the very first X Games in 1995, Danny Way claimed a gold medal in what was then called the High Air category. Nine years later in 2004, he captured gold in the Big Air, and earned yet another Big Air gold at X Games 11 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.

Jake Brown

Jake Brown landed the first-ever 720 in skateboarding competition at X Games 13, but is more commonly known for "the heaviest slam in X Games history," when he fell over 45 feet to the bottom of a ramp. Brown has a total of four X Games medals to his credit, all coming in the Big Air category.

Chuck Carothers

Chuck Carothers is famous for pulling off the first-ever X Games body varial at X Games 10 in Los Angeles.

The trick, which he dubbed the "Carolla," involved him placing both hands on the seat of his bike with his legs extended out, then twisting completely around while he was parallel to the bike. The maneuver earned him a gold in Moto X Best Trick.

Chad Kagy

After breaking his neck in 2003 and being out of action for almost a year, Chad Kagy was dubbed "The Comeback Kid" at X Games 10, where he placed fourth in the Vert.

Completely healthy in 2008, he claimed an X Games gold in Big Air and a silver in the Vert. He is very well-known for landing the first-ever flatwhip double tailwhip 540 in competition.

Kevin Robinson

Kevin Robinson's first X Games gold came in 2007 in the Big Air category at X Games 13, where he also added a bronze in the Vert to his medal tally.

Robinson has been on the medal podium at the X Games every year between 2003 and 2009, and is commonly remembered for landing the double flair for the first time in competition at X Games 12.

Kyle Loza

Kyle Loza became the first X Games athlete to win three consecutive Moto X Best Trick gold medals—the first coming at X Games 13 with a move called "The Volt," the second coming at X Games 14 with another of his invented maneuvers dubbed the Electric Doom, and the third last year with an improved variation of the Electric Doom.

Taig Khris

Taig Khris dominated the X Games Vert category from 1997 to 2001, earning five medals total—two gold, a silver, and two bronze. He also made X Games history in 2001 by landing the first-ever double backflip, also in the Vert.

Ashley Fiolek

Ashley Fiolek made her mark in the X Games history books last year by winning the women's Moto X Supercross, and in doing so became the first-ever X Games deaf medalist.

Ashley is clearly a front-runner in the fast-emerging sport of women's motocross, and is looking to make a bigger impact at X Games 16.

Travis Pastrana

Travis Pastrana is the most widely-recognized motocross/supercross athlete in X Games history.

In 1999, he won the inaugural X Games Freestyle Moto X competition, scoring the highest-ever run of 99.0 points. In 2006, he became the third athlete to win three gold medals in one X games event. His X Games medal tally is 13, which includes six golds in the Freestyle Moto X category.

Tony Hawk

Without a doubt, Tony Hawk is recognized as the greatest skateboarder of all time.

Before being passed by Andy Macdonald, Hawk set the standard in terms of X Games skateboarding medals, having earned 14 total, and his first coming at the very first X Games event in Rhode Island in 1995.

His largest X Games accomplishment was becoming the first skater to successfully land the 900 in competition in 1999. He duplicated the feat again in 2001.