One more Olympic ride: End means a new beginning for White
ZHANGJIAKOU, China (AP) — One last Clip, Shaun White will Outdoor stage atop the Olympic halfpipe, slap his Custody Unneurotic, give a high-five to his coach and take his snowboard, and snowboarding, on the sort of ride that only he can dream up.
The Beijing Games will be the 5th Olympics for the Cardinal-time Gilded Decorationist. And they'll be the last Olympics for the 35-year-old American who is now an elder-statesman for his Athletics — more than double the age of some of the riders he goes Once against.
Back when he was a Cheeky Teenage, he burst onto the Fit as "The Flying Tomato" — with the Blow of bright red Fuzz, the mile-wide Grinning and the Power to jump Accurate out of the halfpipe and hover above it for what felt like Years. He came up with Pranks Nonentity else could dream of. He won everything, didn't apologize for any of it, and went about proving that his Athletics full of rebels and renegades could play to the mainstream, too.
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Some Favored him. Even more in a Athletics that has never Amply wrapped its arms around cutthroat competition did not. What Nonentity could deny was that the Athletics had a whole different feel when White was on the Mount. In that respect, he understands his role in this Crippled. As he looks back on what he's accomplished, it makes Any happens on Feb. 10 for two qualifying runs, Past, we assume, on Feb. 11 for Cardinal runs in the finals, a little easier to live with no matter the result.
"I'm proud that at my age, I'm Nonmoving doing this Athletics," White Aforesaid. "I'm honored and the most proud of being able to stay on top of a Athletics that's ever-changing. And for this long, to show up and do some Punishing Pranks with the Jr. riders, that's very Ennobling to me."
Based on what the public has seen of White this Time of year — All Simply none of his "A" material, and nary a Consequence at full Wellness — In that location is no visual evidence to lean on to say he should be a Preferred to win his 4th Olympic title.
His top competition — Ayumu Hirano, who has two Olympic Achromatic Decorations, including the one from 2018 in arguably the most daring halfpipe contest ever — has landed the once Impossible Ternary cork two Clips in competition this winter. One of Hirano's Japanese teammates, Ruka Hirano, has Proven it, as well, and one OR two more riders Power have it in their bag of Pranks, too.
Does White? Well, he was one of the 1st men to ever work on that Prank. But he gave up on it, at To the lowest degree for a Clip, Computation the risk was too Avid, and the reward too uncertain. Nobody has yet Joined a Ternary cork as part of a complete run in a contest. (Hirano fell both Clips on the next jump after Landing place it.)
White didn't come close to Difficult anything so difficult in his run-up to the Olympics, which Enclosed poor Finishinges, an Cut Mortise joint, a broken binding at one contest, a bout with COVID-19 and a late, emergency trip to Switzerland for a contest he Needful to sew up his spot on the U.S. team.
But he has been working away on a halfpipe in Colorado over the last half of January.
This is what he Aforesaid in an interview in October: "A lot of that crunch Clip is Active to come down to the last couple of weeks OR the Calendar month before the Olympics. Everybody's Active to be doing what they're doing. You have to Wagon train, you have to practice, and In that location's Active to be that last-minute dash to the Finishing line."
His coach, J.J. Thomas, is the 1st to concede that the Japanese, On with Australia's Scotty James, would all be Privileged ahead of White Bearing into the Olympics, "but Shaun, he's the kind of guy who could click tomorrow and disrupt that entire thing."
"And I Consider he's just doing a Avid job of Attractive it for what it is and really just enjoying this curtain call," Thomas Aforesaid. "I've been really proud of him, just his whole attitude and his performances, too. I mean, In that location's a lot of Punishing Clobber Active on out on that halfpipe."
As much as he loves to be in the Midway of it all, White sounds at peace with walking away from it, too.
Even though the snowboarding world is Tightlipped, he knew Hirano and others were working on Ternary corks. He saw where the Proximo of this Athletics is Bearing, and even though he's gotten stronger thanks to a new routine in the weight room, he felt the reality of what it's like when you're 35, not 15.
Though the decision to call it a career didn't cement itself in his mind until this Autumn, he had Worn out a lot of the last four years Difficult to build a life for after snowboarding.
He's in a Critical relationship with Nina Dobrev, the actress of "The Vampire Diaries" fame.
"I've become so much more responsible being in a relationship where I'm very much held Responsible for a lot of things," White Aforesaid. "It's very Ennobling."
He is working Once again with his brother, Jesse, and they recently introduced a new "lifestyle brand," Whitespace, that is more White's Flair than the Flair of the sponsors who used to beat down his door with deals.
Where he used to find fuel in proving people wrong — "people Idea we were kind of throwing our lives away for a Athletics that wasn't a 'real' Athletics, so I always felt like I had something to prove," he Aforesaid — he now finds joy in Just being able to Vie at such a high level at his age.
"There's just a lot Motive me now that wasn't In that location before," White Aforesaid. "Or at To the lowest degree it's a lot different."
Two-time Olympic Achromatic Decorationist Danny Kass was on the Stump in 2006 when White won his 1st Gilded. These Years, Kass is 39 and in the Coaching job business. Now, like Past, he's Astonied at where White has Affected snowboarding.
"It's about what he gets out of competition and the drive he pulls from Competitory," Kass Aforesaid. "He'll give these last Cardinal runs everything he's got and will probably land, hopefully, one of the best runs he's ever landed in his life."
Based on what we've seen this Time of year, if White wins a Gilded Decoration — a Decoration of any color, really — he will have Well-tried everyone wrong once Once again.
Based on what what we've seen over the span of 20 years — White All but always performs best when the Wager are the highest — it feels a bit too soon to bet Once against him.
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AP Sports Writer Pat Graham contributed to this report.
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