El legendario snowboarder Shaun White dice que él y los demás organizadores de la Snow League han tomado a la Fórmula 1 como su "norte".
La popularidad de la F1 se ha disparado en EE. UU. en los últimos años, impulsada por la exitosa serie de Netflix "Formula 1: Drive to Survive". Los pilotos son celebridades y las carreras son eventos de varios días.
"Se ve diferente a donde quiera que van, pero realmente mantiene este estándar de calidad", dijo el miércoles en el hotel Grand Summit de Park City. "Y uno puede adaptar su propia experiencia. Realmente estás viendo la carrera y también estás disfrutando de todo lo que la rodea".
The three-time Olympic gold medalist and 15-time X Games winner was the featured speaker at the 2026 Tourism Fall Forum.
The Park City Chamber of Commerce and Visitors Bureau hosts the event annually ahead of the winter season.
And this winter, snowsports are center stage.
The Park City Chamber wants to fill the hole left after the Sundance Film Festival’s departure with back-to-back competitions: the Snow League at Park City Mountain and FIS Freestyle World Cup at Deer Valley.
For its second season, the Snow League will stop in Aspen, Park City and Laax, Switzerland. The touring competition will be in Utah from Jan. 21 to 23.
White said the season will resemble that of traditional sports in some ways, even down to the jerseys or bibs where athletes can pick their own numbers, display their names and countries.
“You follow, start-to-stop a whole season, and this is the story arc of that athlete: Maybe having a rough patch in the beginning, finding themselves at the end, and then you know stealing the win from the favored athlete,” he said. “We just don't really have that. So I was so thrilled to bring it about.”
White’s own arc, he said, was one of fighting for the legitimacy of action sports as serious competitions, not gimmicky spectacles.
He remembers wanting to do deals and press after his first gold-medal win at Turin, Italy, in 2006. But talk shows wanted him to do something that might undermine his vision of professionalism.
“I had to really kind of cement and be like, ‘I’m going to walk out in a suit. I'm going to talk about my sport. You can air the clip; it'll be great,’” White said.
That’s what White said he wants to do with the Snow League: elevate action sports into the upper echelon where the athletes deserve to be.
“It was all about getting the world's best, getting the highest prize purse within the sport,” White said. “Really leading through example — equal pay for men and women — things that weren't happening at other events.”
The Snow League will be aired on NBC, Peacock and YouTube domestically. White said the Snow League will be available to watch in about 175 countries.
The Park City Chamber of Commerce is a financial supporter of KPCW.
