Tahoe bids for X Games

RENO - Lake Tahoe has qualified as one of four eligible sites to host the 2015-17 Winter X Games, along with current host Aspen, Colo., Park City, Utah, and Quebec City, Canada.

ESPN, owner of the X Games franchise, plans to settle on a pair of finalists by April 2013 and pick a future destination by the end of the year. Aspen hosted the games the past 11 years and received a two-year contract extension last spring.

The Lake Tahoe Sports Organizing Committee is making a bid backed by area ski resorts, local tourism officials and chamber of commerce. If selected, events would be held at Heavenly Mountain Resort straddling the Nevada-California line on the lake's south shore and on the north shore at Squaw Valley, home of the 1960 Winter Olympics.