Shaun White Launches $15M League to Transform Snowboarding

Shaun White conquered the Olympic halfpipe three times, but his toughest challenge might be what comes next.

The snowboarding legend is returning to Italy for the 2026 Winter Olympics, but this time he won't be competing. Instead, he's watching the sport he transformed through his year-old Snow League, a new competition format backed by major investors including Fenway Sports Group.

White's vision is personal. When two young snowboarders at his Oregon camp told him they wanted to compete in his league someday, something clicked. "And I said 'Yeah. You probably will,'" White recalled. "That's what we want."

The Snow League isn't just another competition. It ditches traditional judging for head-to-head elimination brackets where riders face off in best-of-three showdowns. The format forces competitors to drop in from opposite sides of the pipe on their first two runs, a challenge even for elite athletes.

More importantly, White secured consistent prize money for riders. He recruited reigning Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano and freestyle skiing star Eileen Gu to headline events. The league just completed a $15 million funding round, proving investors believe in the vision beyond White's celebrity status.

"I think that speaks volumes, because it's not just me digging into my pockets," White said.

The Ripple Effect

White was 19 when he won his first gold in Italy in 2006, a bright-haired phenom nicknamed "The Flying Tomato" who appeared shirtless on Rolling Stone. He brought action sports into the mainstream and made no apologies for aggressively chasing victory in a sport that prized being laid-back.

Now riders across the globe credit him as their inspiration. Hirano told White that he and his brothers used to rush home from school in Japan to watch his videos. The tricks that will dominate the Italian halfpipe next month, including White's signature Double McTwist 1260, exist because generations of athletes pushed themselves trying to catch snowboarding's biggest star.

White recently dropped back into the halfpipe for the first time in years during a commercial shoot. By his fourth run, he nailed a front-double-10, a trick that will be in play at the Olympics. The muscle memory remains, but his competitive days are over.

His return to Italy on February 13 for the men's halfpipe final will be emotional. "I'm going to try to hold it together," he admitted. But he'll be there in a new role, as the architect of snowboarding's next chapter rather than its reigning champion.

After his recent breakup with actress Nina Dobrev following a six-year relationship, White says he's been "working on myself, working on my business, working on my companies." The next phase looks different than he planned, but it's taking shape.

Young snowboarders now see a future competing in his league and then at the Olympics, exactly the pipeline White envisioned when he traded his competitor bib for an investor's vision.