Canada's Brendan Mackay wins inaugural freeski halfpipe event in Shaun White's Snow League

Canadian freestyle skier Brendan Mackay won the inaugural men's halfpipe event in Shaun White's Snow League on Saturday in Secret Garden, China.

The 28-year-old from Calgary won three head-to-head showdowns to capture the gold medal, defeating 17-year-old Luke Harrold of New Zealand in the final.

The Snow League's unique format sees skiers compete one-on-one in a set of best-of-three contests that goes through three rounds. Mackay bested Hunter Hess of the United States in the quarterfinals before taking down American Nick Goepper in the semifinals.

Mackay, the 2023 halfpipe world champion, earned a first-place prize of $50,000 US, part of the $250,000 total freeski prize purse.

Canada's Mackay wins freeski halfpipe Snow League event in China

Eileen Gu of China returned to the mountain where she closed out her winning stay at the Beijing Olympics to capture the first women's Snow League title for freeskiing Saturday.

Gu, the 22-year-old who won two golds and a silver at the 2022 Games, beat countrymate Zhang Kexin in the final.

Gu and Mackay now lead the Snow League standings with 100 points each, with the field set to reconvene in LAAX, Switzerland in March 2026.

Gu grew up in San Francisco but competes for her mother's home country of China.

Next year in Italy at the Winter Olympics, she will be a favourite in all three freeski disciplines — halfpipe, slopestyle and big air. Three years ago in China, Gu won gold in halfpipe and big air and a silver in slopestyle.

In Friday's snowboard contests, Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano of Japan won the men's event and 14-year-old Patti Zhou of China won the women's.

The Snow League China: Freeski halfpipe men's final