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A Rolling Stone investigation into the former Olympic snowboarder who allegedly became a drug lord and FBI fugitive will serve as the basis for a new docuseries, Snow King: From Olympian to Narco.
Published in January, journalist Jesse Hyde dove into the remarkable story of Ryan Wedding, a snowboarding prodigy who competed for Team Canada at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (he placed 24th in the men’s parallel giant-slalom event). But Wedding allegedly turned to a life of crime, with federal authorities claiming in an indictment last fall that he was heading up a drug-trafficking organization that moved hundreds of kilos of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and the United States, into Canada.
Wedding, who is still at large, is also accused of orchestrating the murders of four people. He was recently added to the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted lists, and there’s a $10 million reward for any information that might lead to his capture.
Production on the new docuseries began in January, with filming taking place across Canada, Mexico, and the U.S. Snow King is set to feature appearances from journalists and investigators — including Hyde and the Toronto Star’s Calvi Leon — as well as operatives in Mexico, current and former FBI agents, and other law-enforcement officials. Snow King will also feature interviews with people whose lives have been changed by the alleged crimes of Wedding and his co-conspirators.
To make Snow King, Rolling Stone Films is partnering with the London-based documentary production company Dogwoof, the Toronto-based company Visitor Media, the CBC, and La Corriente del Golfo, a Mexico City-based production company spearheaded by filmmakers-actors Gael García Bernal and Diego Luna.
“For more than a decade, Rolling Stone has been tracking the saga of Ryan Wedding,” said Jason Fine, senior vice president of Rolling Stone Films. “We are thrilled to partner with this incredible team to delve deeper and bring to the screen this sensational story at the intersection of sports and crime.”
Dogwoof CEO Anna Godas added, “When we first came across the story last year, we instantly knew it could become an incredible series that elevates the true-crime genre by going deeper into what drives people to make certain choices, much like Breaking Bad.”
