Taos FreeriDe Announces Equal Prize Money Across All Categories
20 January 2020
Taos Freeride, the first and oldest Freeride World Tour Qualifying (FWQ) competition in North America has announced that the 2020 edition of this venerable event will now feature harmonized prize money across all categories. The decision will immediately benefit female athletes and increase the available prize purses for both Women Ski and Women Snowboard divisions.
“We have been considering this change for the past couple of seasons,” says Taos’ Kaela Gillum. “Female participation in our event has grown dramatically over the past five years as has the level of competition. It’s a natural step in the evolution of the event.”
With the move, Taos Freeride becomes a leader in North American skiing and snowboarding events, bringing parity to male and female prize purses and creating new and exciting opportunities for female athletes.
“At Taos Freeride we’ve always looked be an athlete-centric event, that’s innovative and that creates the best opportunities for all of our competitors to succeed,” says Taos Freeride founder Tom Winter, who launched the competition 15 years ago. “Our prize purses for female athletes will now be some of the largest of any FWQ events in North America and we expect interest and participation from the ladies to increase, too.”
Scheduled for March 3 to 7, 2020 Taos Freeride is one of the largest – if not the largest – ski and snowboarding big mountain competition in New Mexico, attracting an international field of athletes as competitors seek to qualify for the elite Freeride World Tour (FWT). With more than 200 athletes descending upon Taos to compete in both 2* and 4* levels of competition, the event has been a stepping-stone for numerous athletes to graduate to the world stage. This includes local Taos skier Emma Patterson, who will be competing on the Freeride World Tour as a rookie in 2020.
For more information on Taos or the Taos Freeride event, please contact Kaela Gillum at Kaela.Gillum@skitaos.com