Hint: It involves legend Shaun White!
Oh you’ve heard the bits of Shaun White’s story many times. Young phenom from North County San Diego, preternaturally talented, successful, red hair, flying tomato, Olympic Gold, Bad Things, Olympic loss, owner of Mammoth, more bad things…
But have you ever read it all strung together in one longer read?
Now you can here in “Shaun White, The Man Who Made Snowboarding Cool!
Some of the highlights include the headline, which reveals it was Shaun White who made snowboarding cool.
That the “stoner” portrayal of snowboarding is lame…
White had no interest in playing the part of the stereotypical stoner snowboarder so often portrayed in adverts, and soon insisted on control of his own image rights too. “I was still very young and insecure about my looks – I can remember signing posters at a contest where I looked terrible in the picture. What worried me most was that kids were going to take the pictures home and put them on their walls.”
That it takes a miracle from heaven to best Shaun…
Six weeks away from Vancouver, White had not yet perfected the double McTwist 1260, and suffered a shock defeat by an up-and-coming young American in the Olympic qualifier at Mammoth Mountain. “Danny Davis beat me with this miracle run. I had thought all I would need was my back-to-back double-corked 1080s. I flipped out and was like, ‘How did this happen?’, but three days later I nailed the double McTwist 1260.”
That Russians dream too much, too big…
“The lead-up to Sochi was too much, but my pride got in the way. I felt I couldn’t pull out of slopestyle because I said I’d do it. Then I turned up to Sochi and the course was terrifying, with crazy bulletproof ice and features that looked like they had been copied from a video game.” He pulled out after watching three of his friends being carted off injured. White drew criticism for denying someone else a chance to compete, but is unrepentant. “I earned my spot, and I’m sorry I didn’t ride the slopestyle, but I had other goals in the halfpipe.”
And that Iouri Podladtchikov will repeat as gold medalist in Korea…
Nevertheless, White is not finished with snowboarding just yet, planning to compete at the Olympics in Pyeongchang 2018. At the age of 31, he will be an elder statesman in a young man’s game – but if his career so far has proved anything, it’s that when faced with a challenge, he will always meet it head-on.
