Photo: ESPN
Shaun White returns to X Games.

Photo: Andrew Mapstone
Jake Duncombe

Photo: ESPN
Tanner Foust looks to claim gold again.

Mat Hoffman in Birth of Big AirThe 16th installment of ESPN's X Games returns to Los Angeles this weekend beginning today through Sunday. Hosted at the Staples Center and the LA Coliseum X Games 16 will feature 23 events, over 200 athletes with an expected attendance of 150,000 fans.

Highly anticipated is the return of Shaun White to competition. After suffering an ankle injury last month while training, White is back to compete in both vert and vert best trick giving him two chances to win another gold medal since his last X Games victory in 2007.

Skateboarding will also see a new discipline in the form of the Real Street Sessions contest. Real Street is the first contest of its kind. Twelve top street skaters have filmed and submitted 60-second video parts. A panel of fellow pros will judge each submission with the winner receiving a gold medal and $50,000.

Another debut event is SuperRally, which resembles European Rallycross in a sprint style form of auto racing that features heats of four drivers racing wheel-to-wheel on a dirt track. "SuperRally is a perfect fit for X Games and will bring all of the most extreme parts of motorsports into one event," said three-time X Games Rally medalist Tanner Foust.

ESPN will also premiere a new film at X Games 16 called Birth of Big Air. It chronicles BMX legend Mat Hoffman's pursuit to do a 25-foot quarterpipe air and the injuries he suffered along the way. Long before the term big air was coined, Mat was pushing the limits of what s possible and paid the price. "One doesn't come without the other," says Hoffman. "If you're going to have fun you're going to be woken up unconscious every once in a while."

For all the info go to Xgames.com