Bird's Nest to welcome world's top snowboarders

Updated: 2011-12-01 16:05

(chinadaily.com.cn)

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Bird's Nest to welcome world's top snowboarders 

Twice-Olympic snowboarding champion Shaun White attends a press conference in Beijing ahead of the 2011 Beijing Air & Style snowboarding tournament November 30, Wednesday.  [Photo/Xinhua]

A 43-meter high ski jump platform is being erected in the Beijing's famous Bird's Nest stadium to welcome snowboarding megastars including Shaun White for an extreme skiing acrobatics show.

The 2011 Beijing Air & Style snowboarding tournament will kick off Friday in the former Olympic main stadium for fans and sporting enthusiasts to capture some daredevil mid-air twists and turns.

The top-tier“Ticket To Ride”world snowboarding tour will have all the world’s top 20 snowboarders competing for the $100,000 prize money. Twice-Olympic champion Shaun White will appear in the tournament for a second time.

White said China will produce snowboarding champions within years as there are larger number of participants for the sport.“It is a new sport in China and you can look it in a new perspective,”White said after watching a pre-tournament youth challenge on Wednesday.

China has little strength on the snow in international competitions. The only advantage is freestyle skiing which produced Olympic champion Han Xiaopeng and twice-world champion Li Nina.