Industry News
The winter sports world just witnessed the inaugural Snowblast KSA Cup. A skiing and snowboarding big air competition held in none other than Saudi Arabia? That’s right, the skiing and snowboarding world might be heading down the road of LIV golf and Saudi Super League soccer.
The event was held in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. A massive scaffolding was built at over 30 meters (98 feet) high and 20 meters (65 feet) wide. Over 500 metric tons of snow was brought in to build a desert winter wonderland. An event like this might usually seem kind of gimmicky and not normally make headlines. But with the amount of money being flashed, this event brought in some massive names in the winter action sports world. Athletes like Tanner Hall, Henrik Harlaut, Sven Thorgren, Red Gerard, and many other Olympians, FIS winners, and past X-Games Champions were all invited to come take part. It should be noted though that there were no women invited to this event. According to the article written by Rahaf Jambi from the Arab News, women will be invited to compete in the future.
Normally you might not get athletes of this caliber to take part in an event like this, but the payout was too good. The winnings for this event are some that you don’t see often in a sport where riders huck their meat for a new pair of goggles and some cash. First place took home $50,000, $30,000 for second, and $20,000 for third place. On top of that, all the competitors were given $2,000 just to be there.
The skiing event went off and the first ever winner of the Snowblast KSA Cup was Swedish skier Henrik Harlaut. On his Instagram, he wrote that he “Had so much fun and the vybz were all time.”
The event didn’t go off totally without a hitch though. According to Mark Calvin at Snowboard Magazine, “The snowboarding portion of the event was canceled due to wind, inclement weather, and issues with the jump.” That unfortunately was the least of the issues and controversies for the event.
The event took place in Saudi Arabia and with that automatically brought controversy. Many spectators were not excited to see Saudi Arabia again throwing huge amounts of money at a sport to entice athletes to go. Other fans of the sport and the riders they cheer for were not happy to see them competing in a country with such poor human rights. Some even thought it was a slap to the face of some of the big-name women in the sport to go compete where they weren’t invited and where they are not treated as equals to men. The controversies surrounding the country very much cast a shadow on this event.
It doesn’t appear to be a one-time thing so keep your eyes open next season for details on this event. It does appear that the high-flying women will have a chance to compete next time. We shall see what next year brings. At least a few more details and a little more international marketing will hopefully be provided leading up to it.
