Beijing Air & Style
China is known for a many things, and very few of those things are cool. The communist government isn’t down with Google, Avatar, or proper control standards, but somehow they’re going to have all of the world’s top snowboarders through customs and into the Olympic digs that have probably been housing a Reebok factory since the torch left town.
The Air & Style contest that has rocked stadiums across the globe since 1994 is coming to China on December 4th and, according to this morning’s Twitter feed, every one of the invited riders has been confirmed. This means that sixteen snow slayers like Andreas Wiig, Peetu Piroiinen, and Scotty Lago will all be dropping in at the Oakley and Shaun White Air & Style. That’s not a joke either, they’re really calling it the Oakley and Shaun White Air & Style. Does that mean that Shaun doesn’t even have to compete anymore? He just gets to put his name on things and practice for skateboard vert, I guess thats what a few Olympic medals get you these days.
The event is taking place at the Olympic Sports Center Stadium in Beijing, and it’s going to be quite the spectacle to see the world’s top riders in a stadium built for the summer Olympics. There’s sure to be a huge crowd too, since the Chinese are such fervent supporters of seemingly everything, they’re bound to treat these fellas like royalty, whether they win or lose. This crowd is sure to set the bar high for the remaining Air & Style events at Innsbruck in March and next December’s event in Munich.
[…] fourth place. Curiosity was abound prior to the event as to why Shaun White’s name was on the posters like a sponsor, and while he did not compete, he really did some good things for the sport, by […]