Second Annual Uninvited Invitational Featured 70 Athletes for Largest Prize Purse In Women’s Snowboard History
When Jess Kimura self-produced The Uninvited back in 2018, she pushed over the first domino of a women’s snowboarding movement. She successfully highlighted female athletes that were up-and-coming and in some cases relatively unknown to the larger snowboarding community, which called for three more films in the coming years. In 2023, The Uninvited Invitational took that concept and turned the movement into a live ,in-person event. Through the years, it’s launched multiple careers for girls, women, and non-binary riders who needed a place to shine. And with the live event returning this year for a second run, The Uninvited has now fully evolved from a once-revolutionary film concept to a contest offering the largest prize purse in all of women’s snowboarding.
Seventy athletes were brought out to Park City, Utah from 20 different countries this month with $56,000 in total prize money up for grabs. The lineup included some heavy-hitting names in women’s snowboarding like X-Games gold medalist Grace Warner, 2024 Red Bull Heavy Metal champion Egan Wint, Olympian Annika Morgan, 2024 Slush mag Rookie of the Year Iris Pham, 2023 Video Part of the Year winner Ivika Jurgenson, multi-time video part award winner Kennedi Deck, and Natural Selection Duels competitor Emma Crosby.
But in true Uninvited fashion it was an up-and-coming athlete who stole the show. Finnish snowboarder Telma Särkipaju went one up on her second-place finish from 2023 and earned a $13,000 payout as the 2024 Uninvited Invitational Champion.
“This event means everything. It’s the best of the season – the most inspiring and motivating event, ever. I’m just hyped for everyone and so glad that I got to see how amazing the level was this year and how it’s progressing all the time,” Särkipaju said.
“When you look at the top five finishers, three of them were relatively unknown, having earned their spot in the competition through qualifying events,” Uninvited founder Jess Kimura added. “How much more talent is out there that we don’t know about simply because there aren’t enough opportunities for them to showcase what they are capable of?”
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