Press Release, Breckenridge, CO

The FIS Freestyle World Cup, in conjunction with America’s top tour for freeskiing and snowboarding, the Sprint U.S. Grand Prix, is bringing World Cup halfpipe and slopestyle action to Breckenridge Ski Resort on Jan. 8-12. The fourth halfpipe and third slopestyle stop on the 2013-14 FIS Freestyle World Cup tour will be one of the last events held within the qualifying period for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games. The last day for Olympic qualification is January 20, 2014.

The tour stop for the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association’s Grand Prix was moved from Northstar California Resort to Breckenridge because of Breck’s competition-ready venue already in place. Despite good quality snow conditions at Northstar, the region was not getting sufficiently cold temperatures for snowmaking teams to ensure the huge production of snow required for building a competition halfpipe and slopestyle venue. Breckenridge, meanwhile, recently played host to the opening competition in the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships, and the mountain’s snow infrastructure was such that it could easily handle the addition of an event of this size at short notice.

The event will feature most of the top international slopestyle and halfpipe athletes and will be broadcast on NBC and NBCSN.

“Breckenridge will be an outstanding World Cup/Grand Prix venue and a vital part of our Olympic Team selection,” says Calum Clark, Vice President, Events, U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. “While the snow conditions are great at Northstar and the region is now experiencing much colder temperatures, we all mutually felt that it was too great a risk for the resort given the massive amounts of snowmaking required to build the venue. We’re very sorry to not be going to Northstar, which has an outstanding track record of building tremendous venues, but this move will enhance Northstar’s ability to serve its guests and keep the event in the Vail Resorts family at Breckenridge.”

Facts:

The FIS Freestyle World Cup/Sprint U.S. Grand Prix will move to Breckenridge Ski Resort, USA, Jan. 8-12, due to weather issues at the previously scheduled venue Northstar, USA.

It will be the fourth stop of the year on the FIS Freestyle halfpipe World Cup tour, and third for slopestyle.

Quality facilities are already in place at Breckenridge, which recently played host to the Dew Tour iON Mountain Championships.

The Breckenridge stop is an International Ski Federation World Cup-sanctioned event, being held in conjunction with the USSA’s Sprint US Grand Prix for freeskiing, as well as an Association of Freeskiing Professionals Platinum event.

The Breckenridge event will be the second stop in the U.S. Grand Prix series.

The event will be broadcast on NBC and NBCSN in the USA.

Schedule:

Wednesday, Jan. 8
Slopestyle skiing qualifying

Thursday, Jan. 9
Halfpipe qualifying

Friday, Jan. 10
Slopestyle finals

Sunday, Jan. 12
Halfpipe finals