When Will Shaun White Compete Again
Shaun White, on His Farewell Tour, Prepares to Throw His Final McTwist
Competing in the Olympic halfpipe concluding against athletes who admired him when they were children, White is reflecting on his legacy and planning his time to come in the sport.
ZHANGJIAKOU, Cathay — Shaun White was at the bottom of the halfpipe, chatty and relieved, just as the dominicus was sinking. He was talking most making it through to another Wintertime Olympics final, two days away, and possibly, only perhaps, finishing his career, at 35, with another gold medal.
But he could not help merely be nostalgic, likewise. This is a cheerio bout, after all, his fifth and final Olympics, which means that White has three rides left, all on Fri (Thursday nighttime in the United States). He mentioned Jake Burton Carpenter, the founder of Burton Snowboards, who died in 2019. Carpenter gave White a snowboard at age seven and ready him on a course to becoming the most famous snowboarder in the world.
"Here nosotros are today because of that," White said. "Possibly I could be that for the side by side generation."
Information technology was a humble thing to say because White already is that for the adjacent generation. He has been that for a long time.
White was one of the last competitors to ride in qualifications on Wednesday. When it was still unclear whether he would advance to the concluding, other top snowboarders talked about him as a sort of snowplow for their ain careers — leading the way for all of them to brand a living on a snowboard, to turn the halfpipe into ane of the Olympics' must-see events.
How many of them would be here without White? How many cameras would be aimed their mode?
His rivals spoke of White in the present tense. White is non some creaky antique. He is not here as a favor. He earned his fashion onto the U.Due south. team, which is always a challenge. It was during that chase this winter that he realized this would be information technology. He concluded any thoughts of four more years, of the 2026 Olympics in Italy.
"I was pretty excited most maybe attempting Italy, but these injuries and then Covid, all these things coming up, I just took it equally a sign that, you know, this would be an astonishing last run," White said.
There are iii runs left. He is even so relevant, all the way to the terminate. The final volition feature not but White, only a lot of tricks that White invented.
Epitome
Scotty James of Commonwealth of australia, a favorite to win here, get-go competed in the Olympics with White in 2010, when White won his second gold medal.
"I got to see him win that gilded medal and then a few other times, and he became my rival," James, 27, said. "It'southward a funny development from him being someone I looked up to, to then being someone I had to try to show upward and beat."
Every bit White flashed back to his offset at historic period 7, and wondered aloud how he might pay it all forward when he retires from Olympic-level competition, he held his snowboard tight, logo out.
He recently started his own company, called Whitespace, with his brother, though information technology is unclear just what Whitespace will be. Perchance a visitor similar Burton, selling snowboards (White now rides a Whitespace-branded board) and clothes and such.
Only it sounded like White was not going to disappear.
"Just because I'm not competing doesn't mean I won't be here at the next Olympics, cheering on all my friends and existence a big part of the sport," he said.
He pulled himself back into the nowadays, back and along as smoothly as he rides the transition zone betwixt hits in the halfpipe. Minutes before, he had put downwardly some other in a line of clutch performances.
He stumbled on the outset run, nether-rotating a double McTwist 1260, a flim-flam he invented and that has been a office of his Olympic run since 2010. He killed time waiting for his next plough — maybe his last Olympic turn — going up the lifts, riding, thinking.
What if he flubbed the run again? Family was watching at home, worried this was how it would cease. Reporters were gathered at the halfpipe, wondering if a fall on a trick he invented would be the deplorable coda to the sport's best career.
White landed the trick and the run. There was relief in that.
"I'm living the other version where I really practice what I came here to practice and put down some heavy runs in finals, and try to hit that podium," he said. "I get my shot now."
He politely excused himself from the cold, the last to leave the base of the pipe, having washed an hour's worth of interviews with tv broadcasters and reporters from all over the world.
He seemed to relish the attending, and seemed relaxed about what was alee. None of the people paying attention to snowboarding for the by few years reasonably expect White to win another aureate medal. Only they know he might.
For the first time, he will be an underdog. But reaching the concluding put him in an elite form, still separated from most of those he inspired to ride. No thing what happens, White will slide abroad in his prime, if not quite his meridian.
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/10/sports/olympics/shaun-white-snowboarding-last-olympics.html
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