"The Snow League" by Shaun White begins the '24-25 season!
He was a three-time gold medalist in the snowboarding halfpipe at the Winter Olympics, and also won 13 gold medals at the global action sports event Winter X GAMES. Shaun White (USA) is a legendary rider who has colored the history of snowboarding and evolved the sport with his unprecedented records.
Even after retiring from the competitive scene, he continued to focus on business, developing the snowboard brand ``Whitespace'' that bears his name.
But more than that, this superhero was thinking about further developing snowboarding more than anyone else.
June 17, 2024. Sean announced the launch of The Snow League, the first professional winter sports league to include snowboarding and freeskiing. The above Instagram was posted to @shaunwhite on June 18th. ``Snowboarder and freeski athletes deserve a legitimate professional league,'' the message reads.
Shaun White's ``The Snow League'' will kick off with its first halfpipe event in the United States in March 2025, followed by a caravan to five locations around the world.
What shocked the world was not only the fact that Shaun White had set it up, but also the incredible scale of it.
The WinterIncredibly, Sean's ``The Snow League'' will far exceed this amount with a total prize pool of 1.5 million dollars (approximately 237 million yen) for all five tournaments.
Coincidentally, X Games has announced a new league system called "X GAMES LEAGUE" and will adopt a new style (competitive format?) starting in 2026, but why did Sean think of this in the first place?
According to an exclusive interview with American snowboarding media ``SNOWBOARD MAGAZINE'', Sean said the following. Let's pick up 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 idea
Sean answered the interviewer's question, ``How did you come up with this idea?''
“In a way, it was an idea born out of necessity. That was my breakout season, going back to when I was 16, and I won every competition I competed in. Halfpipe, slopestyle, big air, I competed in all the events, including the rail, and was almost undefeated.I even won the Olympics in my 19 year old season.But at the end of that season, a reporter said to me, ``It was an amazing season. But how does it feel to not be a world champion? I thought, "What? What does that mean? What could I not have done?"
That's when I knew something important was missing in this sport. The various major tournaments are not interconnected at all and are independent. So, it can be said that the origin of 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 has decreased. The US Open will be gone, and the Dew Tour, which started with five, will be reduced to two or three, and there will only be one, right? Although there are plans to develop Winter
So now is a good time for us to step into this space. I think we are ready to bring riders together under one umbrella, but at the same time it's sad about the current state of the sport. We're not trying to exclude anyone or be confrontational. We want X Games to be successful and we want other events to survive. So 'The Snow League' is not about adversarial things."
Sean has been at the forefront of helping snowboarding compete with major sports like the NBA and NFL.
He has a strong desire for snowboarding to be more respected by the general public. To that end, he must have had the desire to create a competition platform where athletes can shine and be properly understood and evaluated, including prize money that supports athletes. How will this grand project, which is Sean's long-held dream come true, develop?
What's inside The Snow League and what's next?
The inaugural season will feature five halfpipe events in the U.S. and around the world, with more events and disciplines planned for subsequent seasons, according to a press release.
The competition format will consist of the world's top 20 (Men) and 16 (Women) competing in a tournament format. Athletes who can participate will be selected using the world snowboard ranking World Snowboard Points List.
There are also plans to introduce a freeski halfpipe at some point, but details are still being worked out. Of course, in the future, it is expected to expand to big air and jib events as well as slopestyle snowboarding, and is considering both snowboarding and freeskiing.
"The Snow League" is created by Shaun White, a legendary rider who created a major era in snowboarding.
I'd like to keep an eye on the future of STEEP, which Sean calls "my next big chapter."
