Organizers of the annual Winter Dew Tour have announced that the 2021 event will be staged as a U.S. Ski & Snowboard Olympic qualifying event for men’s and women’s halfpipe and slopestyle snowboarding and freeskiing. The December 16–19 event will be held at Copper Mountain in Colorado after the resort held the event in 2020.
The Olympic designation means the world’s best men and women snowboarders and freeskiers will compete for spots to represent the United States at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games in Beijing. The Olympic Games will be staged February 4–22, 2022. Athletes scheduled to compete at the Dew Tour include Olympic snowboarders Shaun White, Julia Marino and Red Gerard; and skiers Maggie Voisin, Alex Hall and Alex Ferreira.
The Dew Tour served as an Olympic qualifier for freeskiing and snowboarding in 2014 and 2018. In May, the summer event in Des Moines, Iowa, served as the only U.S.-based global Olympic qualifying event for skateboarding at the Tokyo Games.
“We are thrilled to partner with Dew Tour for a third Olympic qualification cycle and continue our longstanding relationship with Copper Mountain,” said U.S. Ski & Snowboard Freeski & Snowboard Director Jeremy Forster. “The Dew Tour not only provides world-class competitions but is also the perfect platform to introduce U.S. Freeski & Snowboard Olympic hopefuls ahead of the 2022 Beijing Olympic Winter Games.”
Copper Mountain for years has been a training site for the U.S. ski and snowboard teams.
“I’m so excited to be heading back to Copper this winter season to compete at Dew Tour,” said Gerard, 2018 Winter Olympic gold medalist and MTN DEW snowboarder who also won the 2020 Winter Dew Tour in men’s slopestyle. “It’s such a fun event to be a part of, and this year I’m hoping to do well so that I can qualify towards earning a spot at the 2022 Olympic Winter Games to represent the USA!”
The Dew Tour will also feature men’s and women’s snowboard adaptive competitions on a banked slalom course. In addition, the event’s streetstyle will return with a nighttime men’s and women’s ski and snowboard jam session. A partner village will also offer various outdoor activities for fans. The entire Dew Tour event is free and open to the public.