Park City, UT – Two-time Olympic champion Seth Wescott and silver medalist Lindsey Jacobellis will be among the athletes vying for titles as the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix makes a snowboardcross stop Feb. 11-12 at The Canyons in Park City. The event was announced Tuesday afternoon at a press conference held at the new snowboardcross venue in the renovated plaza at the base of The Canyons.nAthletes, including The Canyons’ Jonathan Cheever, Shaun Palmer and Park City’s JJ Tomlinson, along with several other U.S. Snowboarding snowboardcross team members, signed autographs and met with fans to celebrate the first major international snowboarding event to be held at The Canyons.
“The announcement of this event marks the first time The Canyons has hosted a world class international event,” said the Vice President, Marketing Todd Burnette. “We’re looking forward to hosting the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix to help us showcase the re-creation of the resort. With the course we are building and the overall level of hospitality we are planning for the riders, we are confident that The Canyons will quickly become one of the favorite stops on the world tour.”
The Canyons, having gone under significant renovations this summer including the addition of new trails, a chairlift and repositioning the gondola, is set to host an elite level event. The all star cast consisting of three snowboardcross Olympic medals, Wescott’s two gold medals and Jacobellis’s silver medal, and five time X Games champion Nate Holland will travel to the Utah resort in full force hoping to be crowned champion.
“Events like the Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix and partnership with resorts like the Canyons helps our brand stay connected with action sports and a young audience through sport heroes like gold medalist Seth Wescott,” said Angie Lovett, Sprint Director of Corporate Sponsorship Marketing. “This is an ideal event for us to promote our continued expansion of the super-fast Sprint 4G network to a key demographic. We launched Sprint 4G in Salt Lake City this summer and Sprint’s relationship with U.S. Snowboarding is valuable as we launch 4G in more markets in the Rocky Mountain area and around the country.”
Staging a premier event at The Canyons brings the Grand Prix into a metro area of over a million residents. “Located just a half hour from a major metro area, The Canyons is the perfect location for a partner like Sprint and for our fans, and brings a major event to our hometown community,” said Andrew Judelson, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer of the Park City-based U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association. “The central location will help attract young fans to meet their Olympic heroes.”
The two day event will kick off Friday, Feb. 11 with the men’s and women’s qualification rounds with the finals held on Saturday, Feb. 12. Following the head-to-head race, spectators can expect a live concert to celebrate the competition.
The event at The Canyons will fall into the middle of the three-stop Grand Prix tour. The world’s longest standing snowboarding series opens Dec. 9-11 with the Visa U.S. Halfpipe Grand Prix in Copper Mountain, Colo. It will wrap up in Mammoth Mountain, Calif., Mar. 4-6 with a Sprint U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix halfpipe.
The event is scheduled to air on U.S. television Feb. 19 on NBC at 2 p.m. and Versus at 4 p.m. EST.