American snowboard legend Shaun White is starting a season-long halfpipe league that will offer more than $US1.5 million in prizes in hopes of pulling together what has long been a spread-out, confusing action-sports calendar.
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The 37-year-old three-time Olympic gold medallist, who retired in 2022 after the Beijing Games, is calling the new enterprise the Snow League. The first season will start in March and run past the 2026 Winter Olympics.
There will be five events, all of which will include snowboarding, with plans to include free-skiing at mid-season.
"We really want to be that premier thing, where it's amazing to go to the Olympics and win a medal, but this is like winning Wimbledon or the NBA finals. It's almost more prestigious," White said.
Though snowboarders capture the public's imagination at certain times - notably, the Olympics - keeping track of the sport's biggest stars, including Australian Scotty James, has always been a chore because most halfpipe contests are stand-alone events with inconsistent TV and streaming schedules: Winter X Games, Dew Tour and a series of grand prix stops that aren't always interconnected.
Meanwhile, White remembers competing for a $US50,000 (about $A75,000) grand prize at contests in Japan when he was young. Those sort of prizes are more rare these days, but his league plans to bring them back, along with a bonus for riders who win the season-long standings.
White said he is not trying to crowd out the X Games or any other event or tour, only to give the sport a more reliable calendar with more lucrative cash prizes.
He is also looking to make the league part of a complex Olympic qualifying process.
All of this fits in well with what White has done over his one-of-a-kind career. Starting as a teenager, he essentially created the game being played today on halfpipes around the world.
For decades, snowboarders struggled with the concept of competing for big money and even Olympic medals. White made that the norm, and now that he has left the competitive side, he's hoping to give riders a bigger canvas on which to perform.
"If I can leave this sport in a better place than I found it, it would be amazing," White said.
The league is still locking down deals with resorts and looking for the best media distribution model.
Snowboarders aren't unlike many pro athletes, in that endorsements usually make up a bigger part of their income than prize money. White would like to see them holding bigger cheques at the end of events they fly around the world to be part of.
"A lot of athletes are, like, 'Man, I just don't want to fly to New Zealand and participate in a competition that's going to make me $5000 when the flight down there and the hotel costs more than that'," White said.
"And who is going to see it? I can post it on my social page, but that's about it."
The Snow League plans on bringing 20 men and 16 women to contests.
Australian Associated Press
