Team Republic of Korea earned gold in the 2026 Breckenridge International Snow Sculpture Championships presented by Toyota with their sculpture “Beauty Beyond Difference: Harmony of Coexistence.”

Team Republic of Korea’s sculpture featured a series of smaller orbs extending out of a larger orb meant to symbolize the deepest core of life: its essence. Every orb “endlessly transforms and evolves like a dividing cell, radiating life’s dynamic mystery and infinite possibility,” the team’s description of the creation stated. The power of essence the team worked to depict in the sculpture was meant to represent the hope of a bright future for humanity. 

Team Mongolia won silver with their sculpture “Lassoing Time,” which portrays a cowboy riding a horse lassoing a bull. The sculpture pays homage to Mongolian nomad life and Native American ranching traditions that have a shared ritual of roping. 

Team India scored bronze with their sculpture “Corn: The Ultimate Domesticator.” It is a sculpture of a cob of corn with eyes and an open mouth and is inspired by the book “Sapien: A Brief History of Humankind.” The piece questions whether humans domesticated corn or corn domesticated humans. 

Artists from across the globe worked through the night in sub-zero temperatures to complete their sculptures by 9 a.m., when tools needed to be put down. The last five days brought extreme weather conditions, including snow, deep freeze and surprise warm temps as the teams worked on sculpting.

Team Lithuania won the Lothar Luboschik Artists’ Choice award with its “Raise Your Flags!” sculpture, which the team described as a flag of snow and a flag to snow. 

People’s Choice voting will remain open until Thursday, Jan. 29, at 2 p.m. and will be announced at 7 p.m. Visit GoBreck.com/vote to vote.

Sculptures will be on display through Tuesday, Feb.  3.