These 16 Freeskiers Will Join Shaun White’s Snow League In December

In March, the Snow League, the professional winter sports league that is the brainchild of snowboarder Shaun White, had its inaugural event in Aspen. The event featured halfpipe snowboarding competition only, but the aim was always to expand into freeskiing—and eventually into new disciplines.

Sixteen freeskiers, eight men and eight women, will join the 36 snowboarders in the halfpipe in the second event of the Snow League’s first season, held December 4- 6 at China’s Yunding Snow Park. It’s the same venue that hosted both sports—and many of the same athletes who will compete in the Snow League—at the Beijing 2022 Olympics.

The lineup of freeskiers includes 12 Olympians: Eileen Gu (China), Cassie Sharpe (Canada), David Wise (USA), Nick Goepper (USA), Rachael Karker (Canada), Gus Kenworthy (Great Britain), Zoe Atkin (Great Britain), Hanna Faulhaber (USA), Amy Fraser (Canada), Fanghui Li (China), Birk Irving (USA) and Brendan Mackay (Canada).

Six of those skiers have earned 13 Olympic medals between them.

At Beijing 2022, Gu became the first freestyle skier to win three medals at a single Games, taking gold in big air and halfpipe and silver in slopestyle.

Gu was announced as a Snow League global ambassador in June.

Wise has three medals across three games (Sochi 2014, Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022), including two golds. Fellow American Goepper also has three medals across the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Games. He is looking for his first gold at Milano Cortina 2026, competing this time not in slopestyle but in halfpipe.

Sharpe has two medals across two games (Pyeongchang 2018 and Beijing 2022). Karker earned a bronze medal at Beijing 2022. Kenworthy, who, like Goepper, has switched his focus from slopestyle to halfpipe, took silver in the former discipline at Sochi 2014.

Rounding out the roster are rising stars Svea Irving (USA), Luke Harrold (New Zealand), Hunter Hess (USA) and Finley Melville-Ives (New Zealand).

“Welcoming the world’s top 16 freeskiers to the Snow League is a defining moment for our league,” said Omer Atesmen, CEO of the Snow League. “These athletes represent the pinnacle of talent, creativity, and progression in freeskiing, and now they’ll have the stage they deserve on a global platform built to match their goals and purpose.”

The freeski competition will see athletes, who will be seeded based on their global ranking, organized into four head-to-head brackets in a quarterfinals round. Each matchup is decided in a best-of-three format.

In Aspen this past March, the Snow League debuted its unique approach to competition, aiming to further differentiate itself from the existing competitive landscape and to prioritize style as much as spinning.

Like the snowboarders, skiers will have to drop in from opposite walls during their first two runs.

“We’re creating a new era of competition where the best in the world battle head-to-head, inspire millions of fans and push the boundaries of what’s possible in winter sports,” Atesmen said.

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The first athlete to claim two runs will advance through the bracket to the semifinals and final, with a share of the event prize purse and points in the standings on the line.

The total freeski purse for the Snow League is $580,000 across two events, Yunding Snow Park, China and LAAX, Switzerland. At each event, men and women will compete for an equal $85,000 purse, including $50,000 for first place, $20,000 for second, $10,000 for third and $5,000 for fourth.

The overall Snow League freeski champions will receive $80,000 in championship awards, split between the top three men’s and women’s finishers.

All 52 freeski and snowboard athletes competing in the Snow League’s first season receive a $5,000 appearance fee, totaling $260,000 per event.

After December’s China event—and February’s Winter Olympics—the Snow League will return to Aspen February 26–28 and conclude at LAAX, Switzerland March 19–21, where the first-ever Snow League world champions will be decided.

NBC Sports and Peacock, who announced a multi-year media rights deal with the Snow League in November 2024, will provide live coverage of the upcoming freeski competition in the U.S.