Top Athletes land at Dew Tour

It might be early in the season, but the competition is more stacked than it’s ever been for the eighth Dew Tour in Breckenridge. Olympic and X Games medalists along with Dew Tour champs eager to defend their titles pull out jaw-dropping tricks in snowboard and freeski superpipe and slopestyle contests Thursday through Sunday.

The most recognizable name on the confirmed athlete list is two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White, who was notably absent from last year’s Dew Tour at Breck and came in second to fellow Californian Greg Bretz in 2013.

That’s the thing about the Dew Tour. It doesn’t matter how many big comps athletes have won or what kind of reputation they have. It’s all about who can go the biggest when it counts. Last year, Steamboat Springs native Taylor Gold threw a huge frontside 1260, backside double Michalchuck, air to fakie and cab 1080 into a frontside 1080 to win the men’s pipe event, handily beating out Japanese duo and Olympic silver and bronze medalists Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka. This weekend, 2014 Sochi Olympic gold medalist Iouri “IPod” Podladtchikov of Switzerland will be back among the field as will veterans and former champions Danny Davis and Louie Vito.

On the women’s snowboard side, the showdown is going to be legendary, starring defending Dew Tour champ Kelly Clark, the most winning snowboarder of all time (yes, she has even more big wins than White) as well as teenage sensation Chloe Kim, who beat Clark in last year’s X Games, plus veteran Olympic gold medalist Hannah Teter and a slew of other talents eager to make their mark in the pipe. On the freeski side, the entire women’s 2014 Olympic slopestyle podium will be in the mix – Dara Howell, Devin Logan and Kim Lamarre, but they will have to face defending slopestyle champ Keri Herman, who, as a Breck local, has been getting in a lot of practice.

The men’s freeski field is absolutely going off with a rematch of all of the Olympic pipe medalists – David Wise, Mike Riddle and Kevin Rolland plus U.S. dream team gold and silver medalists Joss Christensen and defending Dew Tour slopestyle champ Gus Kenworthy, who will have to go up against local and multi X Games medalist Bobby Brown.

It all goes down on Peak 8, all for free, Thursday through Sunday, with prize tents, giveaways and mad energy throughout the day. There’s also the Friday night Streetstyle contest in the middle of town and Saturday night Audien concert at the Riverwalk (not free). You can catch the live stream of all the events at dewtour.com or the recap on NBC.