Shaun White's "The Snow League" begins its 2024-2025 season!
Shaun White (USA) is a legendary snowboarder who has won three gold medals in the Winter Olympics in the snowboard halfpipe and an incredible 13 gold medals at the Winter X Games, a global action sports event. He has marked the history of snowboarding with unprecedented records and has further evolved the sport
Even after retiring from the competitive scene, he continued to focus on business, developing his own snowboard brand, "Whitespace."
But more than anything, this superhero was concerned with the further development of snowboarding.
June 17, 2024. Shaun announced the launch of "The Snow League," the first professional winter sports league that will also include snowboarding and freeskiing. The Instagram above was posted to @shaunwhite on June 18th, and includes a message that reads, "Snowboarder and freeskier athletes deserve a legitimate professional league."
Shaun White's "The Snow League" plans to kick off its first halfpipe event in the United States in March 2025, then travel to five locations around the world
What surprised the world was not only the fact that "Shaun White himself came up with this!" but also the sheer scale of it all
The Winter X Games is the world's largest prize event, with the total prize money consistently exceeding $1 million in recent years, or about 140 million yenAmazingly, Sean's "The Snow League" is expected to offer a total prize pool of $1.5 million (approximately 237 million yen) across all five tournaments, far exceeding this figure
Coincidentally, X Games has announced a new league system called the "X GAMES LEAGUE," which will see the adoption of a new style (competition format?) starting in 2026, but why did Sean come up with this idea in the first place?
In an exclusive interview with the American snowboarding media, SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE, Sean said the following. Let's pick out some points of interest
Reference: A League Of Our Own? Shaun White Announces New Snowboard League - SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE
Sean's thoughts and feelings that led to the initiative
When asked by the interviewer, "How did this idea come about?", Sean replied:
"It was kind of an idea born out of necessity. It started when I was 16 and had my breakout season, I won every competition I entered. Halfpipe, slopestyle, big air, rail - I was practically undefeated in every event. The season I was 19, I won the Olympics. And then at the end of that season, a reporter said to me, 'You've had an amazing season, but how does it feel to not be world champion?' I was like, 'What? What does that mean? What didn't I do?'"
At that time, I realized that something important was missing from the sport. The various major tournaments were completely unrelated and independent of each other. So, you could say that the idea for "The Snow League" was born at that time
Also, if you look at the state of competition since I retired, you can see that it's been declining. The US Open is gone, and the Dew Tour went from five events to two or three, and now there's only one. There are plans to develop the Winter XGames, but I don't know what their growth strategy is for the next five to 10 years
So now is the right time for us to enter this space. I think we're ready to bring riders together under one umbrella, but at the same time, there's something sad about the state of the sport. We're not trying to exclude anyone or be confrontational. We want the X Games to be successful, and we want other events to survive. So, The Snow League is not adversarial."
Sean has been at the forefront of efforts to put snowboarding on a par with major sports like the NBA and NFL. He has a strong desire for snowboarding to be more respected by the general public. To achieve this, he has cherished the desire to create a place where snowboarding can shine, a competitive platform where it is properly understood and appreciated, including prize money to support athletes.
How will this ambitious project, which has realized Sean's long-held ambition, unfold?
What's inside The Snow League and what's next?
According to a press release, the inaugural season will feature five halfpipe events in the United States and around the world, with more events and disciplines planned for subsequent seasons
The competition format will be a tournament-style competition between the world's top 20 men and 16 women. Participants will be selected using the World Snowboard Points List, a global snowboarding ranking system
They also plan to add a freeski halfpipe at some point, but the details are still being worked out. Of course, they also plan to eventually host snowboard slopestyle events, as well as big air and jib events, so they are considering both snowboarding and freeskiing
The Snow League is run by Shaun White, a legendary rider who created a major era in snowboarding.
As Shaun calls it, "my next big chapter," we at STEEP will be keeping a close eye on it.