The Freeride World Tour (FWT) will be back in Golden for 2021, with competitors set to take on Kicking Horse Mountain Resort from Feb. 8 to 13.
It will be the fourth straight year the tour has come to Golden, with the next competition visit being the second stop on the 2020-21 tour.
The tour also announced a change in their championship format, with four key changes.
Athlete qualification will occur on the third stop, which is set for Ordino Arcalis, Andorra, instead of the fourth stop, creating more fierce competition for the earlier stops on the tour.
The same number of athletes will advance to the championship round as in 2020 – 13 for ski men, six ski women, six snowboard men and four snowboard women, for 29 riders down the stretch.
Competitors will also get two runs in Austria on the fourth stop of the tour, keeping their best score of the two.
The FWT Finals in Fieberbrunn and Verbier will be rolled out after the cut, where for the last two events, the points will be weighted 1.5. This means the winner will take 15,000 points, compared to 10,000 for the first three stops.
World champions will now be crowned for their best three results out of five.
The tour is working towards maintaining the health and safety of their athletes and all those involved, actively working with local authorities to make sure each competition is compliant with current regulations, according to a release from the FWT.
While no formal announcement has been made on how to view the event, FWT says to stay tuned to social media channels for the latest news.
All events will be broadcast at www.freerideworldtour.com.
The FWT also announced their roster for their 2021 tour, with 48 athletes across their four categories – 24 ski men, eight ski women, nine snowboard men and seven snowboard women.
For the ski men, defending champion Isaac Freeland will be returning, along with Canadian Tom Peiffer. Fellow Canadian Cooper Bathgate, who came in 16th at last year’s Wrangle the Chute event at Kicking Horse, will be joining him as one of six rookies on the tour.
Ski women defending champ Arianna Tricomi is set to return to the tour as well, looking to conquer Kicking Horse after finishing in second last year.
On the snowboarding side, Nils Mindnich will seek to defend his title, while Marion Haerty will look to do a victory lap after claiming gold overall last year, as well as at Kicking Horse.
For more information, visit https://www.freerideworldtour.com.
