Featured Picture: Mike Dawson, Courtesy of The Snow League | Phrases: Jordan Grant-Krenz
Right here’s a headline you by no means anticipated to see coming from FREESKIER; Shaun White is beginning a brand new halfpipe competitors circuit, and he needs freeskiing to play a crucial function.
On Monday, June seventeenth, White introduced his plans to start The Snow League. This new league might be a worldwide competitors format for halfpipe snowboarders & skiers and is ready to start March of 2025. Whereas that may appear far off, it’s solely seven quick months away. There might be a complete of 5 stops through the first yr, with the debut being in the USA, and the remaining 4 going down around the globe.
No stranger to competitors, White is probably essentially the most certified to talk on the ups and downs of present codecs. He’s a five-time Olympian, three-time Olympic Gold Medalist, and has a staggering 23 X Video games medals, with 15 of them being Gold. To say he is aware of tips on how to safe the rostrum could be a prolific understatement. He holds the information for many X Video games and Olympic medals received by a snowboarder. However his focus appears to be on boosting youthful athletes to heights even he may by no means attain. “In any case my years competing in many various codecs,” mentioned White, “I’ve come to appreciate that snowboarding and freeskiing athletes deserve a legit skilled league. Starting subsequent yr, The Snow League will give riders, freeskiers, and sports activities followers all around the world a vacation spot for what I imagine is essentially the most thrilling athletic competitors in all of sports activities. Now could be the second to raise the following era of winter athletes who’re pushing the boundaries of competitors.”
Aggressive motion sports activities have by no means introduced in the identical sort of cash for athletes as conventional sports activities. For a myriad of causes, riders have obtained lower than their counterparts in different sports activities. Nick Goepper posted a video detailing this through the winter, as he broke down what his third, 4th, 4th, and fifth place finishes would have earned him in different sports activities outdoors of halfpipe snowboarding. These outcomes introduced him prize cash of simply over $7,000, hardly sufficient to pay the payments. That is one thing White and crew wish to repair with the creation of The Snow League.
An enormous prize purse of over $1.5 million might be distributed all through the primary season. It’s the largest the game has ever seen. $250,000 might be awarded at every occasion, with athletes incomes factors for outcomes all through the winter. These factors will dictate the League’s high finishers, and an extra $250,000 might be distributed to those high-performing riders on the finish of the season. Speak about placing your cash the place your mouth is. There’s no higher method to assist athletes than by, nicely, supporting athletes.
Every competitors cease will run as follows:
Day 1: Coaching Day
Day 2: Qualifying Day
- Qualifying day might be a well-known format with riders getting two runs and highest scores advancing however riders might be grouped and the format will make the most of pool play to facilitate seeding and improve curiosity all through qualifying.
Day 3: Championship Day
- Eight males and eight ladies transfer on to the championship day which contains a head-to-head bracket seeded from qualifying day with quarterfinal, semifinal, and last rounds utilizing a better of three run format.
When contemplating all these advantages, stops around the globe, and immense work to make the entire thing occur, we discovered it shocking but pleasant that White opted to incorporate freeskiing in The Snow League. This new format may have been solely snowboarders, and no person would have batted a watch. However, because of this additional effort, the world’s greatest halfpipe skiers might be becoming a member of the competitors halfway via the primary season. The halfpipe legend attested that, “It was necessary for me to incorporate freeskiing in The Snow League. Like snowboarding, it’s a younger sport, and I really feel just like the freestyle snowboarding athletes deserve the identical alternatives because the snowboarders. We’re minimize from the identical material. I’ve personally loved competing alongside freeskiers and I’m stoked to offer a stage for us all to compete in The Snow League.”
As extra particulars surrounding The Snow League change into clear, FREESKIER will replace you on places, skiers and extra. For now, we’re merely stoked that more cash and alternatives are heading within the route of athletes, offering them with a stability that has lengthy been wanted.
