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New Utah venue announced for 2019 Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships

Posted at 9:59 PM, Aug 25, 2016
and last updated 2016-08-25 23:59:49-04

SALT LAKE CITY -- A new venue was announced Thursday for the 2019 Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships.

Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resorts are already playing host to the event, and now Solitude Mountain Resort will also be getting in on the action.

“A lot of the World Cups that we have, you'd be surprised, but they like to build them where they don't have snow,” said Faye Gulini, two-time snowboard cross Olympian and a Salt Lake City local.

For the first time ever, The International Ski Federation Freestyle and Snowboard World Championships will be held on American soil, and the event will be right here in Utah.

“You know I'm over here like, 'My house has snow, why don't we go there,” Gulini said of using Utah as a location.

Gulini grew up on these slopes. She and other athletes will compete on the new course this winter.

Solitude is the second stop of the U.S. Grand Prix tour. The event is a test run leading up to the world championships in 2019.

"I mean we've traveled all over the world, and we've raced kind of everywhere, and there's no doubt in my mind that this will be one of the top events," Gulini said.

The course will be near the base of Solitude. Athletes will go up the Apex Express and then down the Wall Street and Main Street runs.

“So it's six people going down a course, it has a bunch of obstacles and features, so it'll have rollers and turns and jumps,” Gulini said.

Unlike many venues around the world, fans at Solitude will have plenty of room to watch the events along the Main Street trail as well as from Solitude Village at the bottom.

“I think bringing in spectators is really going to add a lot, and it's gonna provide a lot of inspiration for us as athletes,” said Alex Deibold, a 2014 snowboard cross bronze medalist.

'Its not like some sports, you know, where you're standing there and its, 'zoooom' and they're gone," Event organizer Bob Wheaton said. "This isn't the case with ski and snowbaord cross, so you get to see the whole deal."

Athletes and organizers are hoping the new course and events will bring more attention to snowboard and ski cross.

But more than attention, fans, or even medals, these athletes hope for one key ingredient.

"Good snow, I guess that's a good event right there," Gulini said.