Choi Ga-on (17, Sehwa Girls' High School), who captured South Korea's first-ever gold medal in snow sports at the 2026 Milano-Cortina d'Ampezzo Winter Olympics in the women's snowboard halfpipe, is heading to New Zealand to warm up for the new season.

Choi will compete in the Snow League World Challenge held in Cardrona, New Zealand, on the 19th.

The upcoming tournament, a special invitational event held ahead of the regular season, will feature a team competition format for the very first time.

A total of four teams—representing North America, Europe, the Asia-Pacific region, and "The Challengers," composed of rising stars—will face off. Each team is structured to include one male and one female athlete each in snowboarding and freestyle skiing.

Choi, the only South Korean athlete to be invited, has been assigned to the Asia-Pacific team alongside Luke Harrold, a New Zealand rising star who became the first to successfully land a triple cork in freestyle skiing halfpipe.

Other notable athletes joining the team include Ryusei Yamada of Japan, who won the bronze medal in the snowboard halfpipe at the last Olympics; Queralt Castellet of Spain, the silver medalist at the 2022 Beijing Games; and Sara Shimizu of Japan, the silver medalist at the 2025 International Ski Federation (FIS) World Championships.

Through her management agency, All That Sports, Choi shared, "After the Olympics, I had moments when I wanted to rest, but I always found myself thinking about being back on the snow. When I first received the invitation, I was intrigued because it's a team event, and I decided to participate with great excitement."

She added, "Since this is an event tournament with a different character from the World Cup, I plan to approach it with a mindset of enjoying it. In particular, I heard that the winners will be given an opportunity for heliboarding (snowboarding on powder snow), so I am secretly looking forward to it."

Choi's competition will be broadcast live through the official Snow League YouTube channel at 7:55 AM (KST) on the 19th.

(Photo courtesy of All That Sports, Yonhap News)