Freeze Returns to London as a World Cup Event
Freeze Returns to London as a World Cup Event
Published : 27-Jul-2015 08:28
The city-centre freestyle snowsport and music festival Freezer is back after a year-off this autumn and is being revamped thanks to Lottery funding in to what the organisers say will be the biggest snowsports event in British history on home snow.
Freeze also has a new venue - London's Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, and a new status as an FIS sanctioned Snowboard World Cup Big Air competition - Freeze Big Air.
The event will take place on Saturday 14th November, a week after the revamped London ski show, and earlybird tickets are on sale now priced at £37.50 from the event's website www.freezebigair.com for an unspecified 'limited time'.
The Freeze Big Air event will form part of UK Sport's National Lottery funded major events programme and see over 60 of the world's best male and female snowboarders and skiers descend on the capital's Olympic Park to take on a huge real snow jump measuring 120m x 41m - that's 15 metres longer than the Wembley Stadium pitch - created with 360 tonnes of snow.
British Olympic bronze medallist Jenny Jones is the official event ambassador and British Olympian Jamie Nicholls will be competing alongside a field of world-class snowboarders and skiers. Both are pictured above).
And, with Snowboard Big Air now set to be an official Olympic event, Jenny Jones is confident that Freeze Big Air will become one of the most important annual Olympic Big Air qualifiers on the calendar in the lead up to the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea.
"The news that Snowboard Big Air will be an Olympic discipline in 2018 is huge for British snowboarding and skiing" said Jenny, "British riders like Billy Morgan and Katie Ormerod are real medal prospects in 2018. And the fact that we'll be able to see the best riders in the world battling it out in the middle of London will be an amazing start to each winter. I can't wait!"
Similar events in former summer Olympic stadia have included repeat shows in Beijing's Birds Nest stadium in recent winters.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson also commented on the event's announcement, "The Freeze Big Air Festival is clear proof that anything is possible at the magnificent Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park. We have already hosted a plethora of world class sporting events and can now add Olympic-level snowboarding to that incredible mix. I am delighted that London will be showcasing the spectacular talents of some of the world's leading winter athletes in such a unique setting. It promises to be an extraordinary day that adds to our reputation as the world's number one sporting city."
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