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Countdown to the Burton US Open: Burton announces confirmed riders

The 31^st annual Burton US Open Snowboarding Championships presented by MINI announced an impressive list of confirmed riders including Shaun White, Mark McMorris, Kelly Clark, Torah Bright, Jamie Anderson, Iouri Podladtchikov and more.

“The US Open is one of snowboarding’s legendary events, and some of my best competition memories are of competing at Vail, so for me, bringing the two together is all time,” said Shaun White. “I’m excited to compete in Vail’s new pipe and see everyone come out for the next evolution of this contest.”

It all gets started on Wednesday, Feb. 27, with slopestyle semi-finals, which will be more exciting than ever now that slopestyle is an official sport at the 2014 Winter Olympics. At the US Open, the best slopestyle competitors in the world are confirmed to compete, including X-Games slopestyle gold medalist Mark McMorris (CAN), 2012 Burton European Open (BEO) slopestyle winner Aleksander Oestreng (NOR), 2012 US Open slopestyle champ Sebastien Toutant (CAN), and World Snowboard Tour overall title holder Stale Sandbech (NOR), among others. The women’s line-up is equally impressive, with X Games gold medalist and 2012 US Open slopestyle champion Jamie Anderson (USA), 2012 X Games gold medalist Enni Rukajärvi (FIN), Olympian Kjersti Ostgaard Buaas (NOR), three-time BEO Junior Jam winner Ty Walker (USA) and Cilka Sadar (SLO) all confirmed to compete.

On Thursday, Feb. 28, the halfpipe semi-finals begin. The US Open halfpipe rider list is stacked with nine Olympians, including Shaun White (USA), Louie Vito (USA), Greg Bretz (USA), Kazuhiro Kokubo (JPN), Kelly Clark (USA), Elena Hight (USA), Hannah Teter (USA), and Torah Bright (AUS). Also competing are World Snowboarding Championships gold medalist Iouri Podladtchikov (SUI), Queralt Castellet (ESP), Peetu Piiroinen (FIN), Christian Haller (SUI) and 14-year-old halfpipe phenom and 2013 X Games silver medalist Ayumu Hirano (JPN).

Competitors and spectators alike will be in for an amazing week in Vail where they can watch world-class, Olympic-level snowboarding competitions during the day in Golden Peak and free concerts by Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Santigold at Solaris. The entire event is open to the public with slopestyle finals taking place on Friday, March 1 at 10:30 a.m. (Mountain Time) and halfpipe finals going down on Saturday, March 2 at 10:30 a.m. (Mountain Time).

If you can’t make it to Vail to experience the Burton US Open in person, check out live webcasts of the slopestyle semi-finals on Wednesday, Feb. 27, halfpipe semi-finals on Thursday, Feb. 28, slopestyle finals on Friday, March 1 and halfpipe finals on Saturday, March 2. And tune in to Universal Sports and NBCSN on Friday, March 1 and Saturday, March 2 to watch the men’s and women’s finals live on TV.

For a full list of competitors, full broadcast and webcast schedule and more event details, head to www.burton.com/USO and follow the hashtag #BurtonUSOpen.

A big thanks to the following partners for their support of the 31^st edition of the Burton US Open: MINI, Vail Resorts, Mountain Dew®, Town of Vail, Nokia, Paul Mitchell, 3M™ Thinsulate™ Insulation, GoPro, G-SHOCK, Shiseido, Matador, Clif, Transworld, Snowboarder, Analog, Anon and the World Snowboard Tour.