Eileen Gu to return to mountain where she won Olympic gold to compete in Shaun White’s Snow League
NEW YORK (AP) — Eileen Gu will head back to the mountain in China where she won an Olympic title to ski in the Snow League, the halfpipe circuit founded by Shaun White.
Gu, who won halfpipe and big air gold and slopestyle silver in freeskiing at the 2022 Beijing Games, is one of eight women who will take part in freeskiing on Dec. 6 at China’s Yunding Snow Park.
Gu grew up in California, but competed at the Olympics for her mother’s home country of China. She will do that again next year at the Milan-Cortina Olympics. The 22-year-old also has two world championships and three Winter X Games titles.
Among her competition in the Snow League will be Cassie Sharpe of Canada, who won halfpipe gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics and finished runner-up to Gu four years later.
The men’s contest will include two-time Olympic champion David Wise, three-time Olympic medalist Nick Goepper and 2014 slopestyle silver medalist Gus Kenworthy.
The league will distribute $580,000 in prize money over two events — one in China, then a second in Laax, Switzerland, that takes place after the Milan-Cortina Olympics. Winners will get $50,000.
The rest of the women’s field includes 2022 Olympic bronze medalist Rachel Karker, Zoe Atkin, Hanna Faulhaber, Amy Fraser, Svea Irving and Fanghui Li.
The men’s field includes Luke Harrold, Hunter Hess, Birk Irving, Brendan Mackay and Fin Melville-Ives.
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