World championships for big air, halfpipe and slopestyle skiing and snowboarding have been relocated to Aspen Snowmass in Colorado next month.
The biennial world freestyle skiing and snowboarding championships, originally scheduled at Zhangjiakou, China, have been split among four different hosts after it was announced Dec. 4 that the 2022 Winter Olympic venue would no longer host due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Aspen, which also hosts the annual Winter X Games, holds worlds for those three ski and snowboard disciplines from March 10-16. That will be followed by the U.S. Grand Prix, also at Buttermilk Ski Resort in Aspen from March 18-21, the first 2022 Olympic tryout events in halfpipe and slopestyle skiing and snowboarding.
Previously, it was announced that world championships for the other disciplines relocated:
Ski cross and snowboard cross: Idre Fjäll, Sweden, this week through Saturday
Alpine snowboard: Rogla, Slovenia, March 1-2
Aerials, moguls: Almaty, Kazakhstan, March 8-11
The U.S. has some of the world’s best athletes in big air, halfpipe and slopestyle skiing and snowboarding. Notably, Olympic gold medalists Shaun White, Chloe Kim, Jamie Anderson, Red Gerard and David Wise.
White, who last competed at the 2018 Olympics and pulled out of X Games last month with a knee injury, has never competed at a world championships.
At the last worlds in 2019 in Park City, Utah, gold medalists included Kim, Aaron Blunck (ski halfpipe) and Chris Corning (snowboard slopestyle).
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