For the second time this year, Anchorage snowboarder Ryan Stassel will help make history in his sport.
One of two Alaska snowboarders named this week to the U.S. Ski Team's freestyle squad, Stassel is scheduled to race when the World Cup goes to Turkey for the first time in history later this month.
More than $100,000 in prize money will be up for grabs at the big air competition, which will be doubly historic. Not only will it be the first World Cup event in Turkey, it will mark the first time women have competed in a big air competition sanctioned by the International Ski Federation.
Stassel, 22, was part of the U.S. team when slopestyle made its Olympic debut February in Sochi, Russial. In Istanbul, he and other riders will compete in big air on a man-made hill in the center of one of the world's biggest cities.
Stassel was one of eight men named to the U.S. slopestyle team earlier this week. Brett Moody, a 19-year-old from Anchorage, was one of five men named to the rookie slopestyle team.
Slopestyle made its Olympic debut in February, and big air is hoping for inclusion soon. In slopestyle, a competitor performs jumps and other tricks while descending a course that includes rails, jibs and other terrain features. In big air, a competitor performs mid-air tricks after launching off a man-made jump.