The returns of Shaun White and Chloe Kim to snowboard contests will not happen at Copper Mountain, Colo., a World Cup stop that has been canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The event for skiers and snowboarders in halfpipe and big air was scheduled for the week before Christmas. U.S. Ski & Snowboard, the International Ski Federation (FIS) and domestic resort partners are working on securing potential replacement venues.
White, 34 and a three-time Olympic halfpipe champion, hasn’t competed in snowboard since taking gold at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games. It’s by far his longest break between contests.
White said on Instagram last week that he planned on competing this year and was training “for the first contest this season at Copper Mountain” in December.
Kim, who in PyeongChang became the youngest Olympic halfpipe gold medalist at age 17, announced in October 2019 that she would take that season off while taking freshman classes at Princeton.
Kim last competed at the March 2019 Burton U.S. Open, finishing second and breaking an ankle.
White and Kim both trained in Switzerland earlier this fall, along with other U.S. snowboarders.
With Copper off, the next scheduled World Cup halfpipe contest is in Laax, Switzerland, in January, the week before the Winter X Games in Aspen. Then in February is the U.S. Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., a base for White and Kim in the last Olympic cycle.
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