Japan’s Yuto Totsuka won the inaugural Snow League competition in Aspen on March 8. He earned the top seed in the league’s second event at Yunding Park, China, this weekend.
Night owls with an affinity for high-flying skiing and snowboarding will be rewarded this week as the Snow League holds its second event in Yunding Snow Park, China.
Holding competition for the first time since the new league debuted in Aspen in March, Shaun White’s halfpipe competition will feature snowboarders and, for the first time, freeskiers over three days, with live coverage of the finals in the U.S.
A fleet of 36 snowboarders and 16 skiers will take to the pipe that hosted the Beijing 2022 Olympic Games.
“It’s incredible to see The Snow League hosting our first-ever event in China,” White said in a press release on Wednesday. “Yunding Snow Park is the perfect stage to showcase what these sports are about, and a venue that holds a special place in my heart. Expanding the league to include freeskiing alongside snowboarding marks a huge step forward for us, and I can’t wait to see the energy the athletes bring this weekend.”
Snowboard qualifying began on Wednesday evening, Aspen time (which was Thursday morning at the venue) for the women, with the men following. Starting at 6 p.m. Aspen time on Thursday, the snowboard final bracket will begin. On Friday night at 6, the freeskiing bracket will begin.
Finals day for both snowboarding and freeskiing will be broadcast live on Peacock in the U.S.
The snowboard qualifying heats were seeded based on performance in Aspen, with winners Sena Tomita and Yuto Totsuka earning the top spots in the women’s and men’s brackets, respectively. Maddie Mastro is the highest-ranked American after finishing No. 2 in Aspen. On the men’s side, Alessandro Barbieri is ranked No. 4 and Chase Blackwell is ranked No. 6.
The snowboard side features plenty of new blood, with five men and seven women making their debuts, including Spain’s Queralt Castellet, who won Olympic silver in the same pipe in 2022, and Switzerland’s Jan Scherrer, who took bronze in 2022.
The skiing side features 16 athletes making their Snow League debut, with stars Zoe Atkin and Eileen Gu taking the No. 1 and 2 seeds, respectively, in the women’s bracket and Fin Melville Ives and Nick Goepper doing so on the men’s side. The men’s bracket features Colorado locals Birk Irving and Gus Kenworthy, making his return to the pro ranks after more than three years away. Kenworthy is a British-born American, based out of Telluride.
On the women’s side, Svea Irving will represent Colorado. Basalt’s Hanna Faulhaber was announced in October as a Snow League athlete, but is not listed in the bracket for this weekend.
The total event prize purse for this weekend is $620,000 U.S., with equal money for women and men. Each of the 52 athletes is receiving a $5,000 appearance fee, as the league pushes for compensation for competition.
The Snow League will return to Aspen Feb. 27-28, then will be in Laax, Switzerland, in March to complete its first season.
