Toyota U.S. Grand Prix Kicks off at Copper Mountain

COPPER MOUNTAIN, CO (Jan. 13, 2016) – The world’s most elite skiers and snowboarders are at Copper Mountain this week for the first stop of the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix tour. Both snowboarders and freeskiers will compete in halfpipe and the snowboarders will also compete in big air.

With a ton of fresh snow falling at Copper Mountain over the last week, the 22-foot Main Vein Superpipe is open and ready for action from some of the top skiers in the world.

Watch for competitive performances from Olympic gold medalists David Wise (Reno, NV) and Maddie Bowman (South Lake Tahoe, CA). Also keep an eye on halfpipe team members Brita Sigourney (Carmel, CA), Devin Logan (West Dover, VT), Torin Yater-Wallace (Basalt, CO) and, of course, Gus Kenworthy (Telluride, CO), who is fresh off a win in the Team Challenge at the Winter Dew Tour.  

The event will offer skiers valuable points towards the FIS rankings, as well as the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP) rankings, and will be broadcast on NBC along with live streaming of the finals on nbcsports.com.

Highlights

• History: Copper Mountain is home to one of the best halfpipes in the world: the Olympic-standard Main Vein superpipe. They have hosted elite-level FIS competitions for many years and held the U.S. Revolution Tour just last week.
• Olympians: A host of U.S. Olympians are scheduled to compete at the Copper stop of the Grand Prix, including three-time Olympic medalist Kelly Clark, two-time gold medalist Shaun White and Sochi champions Jamie Anderson, David Wise and Maddie Bowman.
• This year’s tour events are slated at top resorts that support the progression of freeskiing and freestyle snowboarding. Copper Mountain, Solitude Mountain Resort and Mammoth Mountain will showcase the best athletes on the highest-quality terrain in the world.
• Partnership: Toyota makes its debut as the title sponsor for the U.S. Grand Prix tour. Toyota, the world’s top automaker, is committed to advanced mobility, with a fleet of vehicles that support the snow and outdoor lifestyle of skiing and snowboarding.
• Sanctioning: Athletes will earn valuable points for multiple lists: Snowboarders will earn FIS points as well as points on the WST Rankings list; skiers will earn FIS points as well as points on the AFP tour.

Quotes
David Wise—Halfpipe
The pipe is riding good—it’s on a steep pitch, it’s pretty fast and the vert is pretty much dialed. It’s early in the year—I’m a little scattered. I think everybody’s a little scattered out there…I just want to get some good top-to-bottom runs together. I’m not over-pressuring myself to do the most epic contest runs ever; I just want to be solid and build some steam.

Brita Sigourney—Halfpipe
The pipe is riding really nicely actually, I’m surprised, with how new it is, but it’s perfect, like usual—Copper pipe. It’s awesome to be riding with all the friends again, especially the ones we don’t see every day in Utah.

EVENT SCHEDULE
Thurs. Dec. 15 - Halfpipe Freeskiing Qualifiers
Sat. Dec. 17 - Halfpipe Freeskiing Finals

2016-17 TOYOTA U.S. GRAND PRIX BROADCAST SCHEDULE 

(Schedule subject to change)
*live streaming is available on nbcsports.com/live or via the NBC Sports App

Live Streaming
Sat. Dec. 17 - 11:30 a.m. - Halfpipe Skiing

Broadcast
Sun. Dec. 18 - 3:00 p.m. - NBC - Halfpipe Skiing