Facts & Figures: 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships

Excitement is building for U.S. Ski & Snowboard athletes and staff as the 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships get set to take place Feb. 1-10, in the USSA’s own backyard in Park City, Utah. With 10 days of competition at three of the best resorts in the country - including Deer Valley Resort, Park City Mountain, and Solitude Mountain Resort - this will be the biggest winter sports event to be held in Utah since the 2002 Olympic Winter Games.

Find some interesting facts that speak to the significance of the 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships below:

World Championship Success

Five individual U.S. Ski & Snowboard champions from the 2017 FIS Sierra Nevada World Championships will look to defend their titles: Aaron Blunck (Crested Butte, Colo.), McRae Williams (Park City, Utah), Lindsey Jacobellis (Stratton Mountain, Vt), Jonathon Lillis (Rochester, N.Y.) and Ashley Caldwell (Ashburn, Va.). Also, Hagen Kearney (Norwood, Colo.) and Nick Baumgartner (Iron River, Mich.) are defending team snowboardcross champions.

There are three returning U.S. Ski & Snowboard 2018 FIS Crystal Globe winners: Chris Corning (Silverthorne, Colo.), Chloe Kim (Torrance, Calif.) and Alex Ferreira (Aspen, Colo.). Corning claimed the snowboarding titles in slopestyle, big air and overall.

Size and Scale

More than 1,800 athletes and team officials will attend the Championships.

29 competitions including qualifying and final rounds with 13 FIS events showcased, and $750,000+ in prize money.

Three new Olympic events will be hosted for the first time at a FIS World Championships: freeski big air, mixed team snowboard cross, and team aerials.

55,000 spectators are expected across the 10 days of competition.

An international TV audience of more than 270 million viewers are expected to tune in on television and stream on digital devices. This estimated TV audience size has in turn caused TV coverage to exponentially increase: 28 hours of coverage on NBC and NBCSN will be broadcasted, a number that has almost doubled since the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships in Beaver Creek.

Athletes

PyeongChang Olympic freeski gold medalists expected to compete include Cassie Sharpe (Canada), Oystein Braaten (Norway) and Sarah Hoefflin (Switzerland).

PyeongChang Olympic Snowboard gold medalists expected to compete include Chloe Kim (Torrance, Calif.), Red Gerard (Silverthorne, Colo.), Sebastien Toutant (Canada) and Anna Gasser (Austria).

Notable aerial athletes expected to compete include 2018 PyeongChang Olympic gold medalists Oleksandr Abramenko (Ukraine) and Hanna Huskova (Belarus).

Moguls competitors heading to Park City include 2018 Olympic medalists Michael Kingsbury (Canada), Matt Graham (Australia), and Sierra Nevada 2017 double world champion Ikuma Horishima (Japan).  For the women, Olympic medalists include Perrine Laffont (France), Justine Dufour-Lapointe (Canada) and Yulia Galysheva (Russia).

Park City, Utah

The mayor and City Council of Park City have made it a mission to put environmental sustainability a priority during the 2019 FIS World Championships. The Environmental Sustainability Team has partnered up with Park City resorts to ensure that the execution of each World Championship event puts environmental sustainability as a top priority.

Park City, Utah hosted the FIS Freestyle World Championships in 2003 and 2011 at Deer Valley Resort, but 2019 will be the first time a U.S-based World Championship will include all events across the snowboard, freestyle and freeski disciplines.

Volunteer Efforts

Amongst staff, there will be about 900 people working the events; 650 people will be volunteers, equating to a combined 25,000 hours of both working shifts and volunteer commitment.

Featuring the best athletes in the world, world-renowned venues, and several brand-new events, you will not want to miss the 2019 FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships. In fact, there are many ways to get involved, with over 650 volunteer opportunities for anyone 15 years of age and up. Volunteers will be able to experience events up close and contribute to making the World Championships the best it can be. If you have an interest in joining the team, Click Here to Sign Up.

Source: U.S. Ski & Snowboard