Shaun White: One of the Greats Retires

Shaun White recently retired from his amazing Olympic snowboarding career at 35 years old. The 5-time Olympian, and 3-time gold medalist, ended his career with his final run at the Beijing Winter Olympics on February 10, 2022. Finishing in 4th place with two amazing runs, he exited the halfpipe holding his helmet in the air. He walked off to the rest of the runners' fist-bumps and high fives. It was an emotional goodbye for family, friends, fans, and Shaun himself, who shed tears of relief, pride, and joy as he walked away from his last run. 

Shaun began snowboarding at age 6 and won his first competition in the sport at 7. He was astounding and well-known in the amateur snowboarding world, winning five national titles. At 13, he turned professional, and two years later, in 2002, White was only 0.3 points off of qualifying for the US Olympic Team. However, he made the team in 2006, winning all 5 halfpipe Grand Prix events that led to the team selection. At the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics, Shaun was dubbed “The Flying Tomato” due to his mop of bright red hair. Though he almost blew it, he grasped the gold at these Olympics and the 2010 Olympics, but placed only fourth in his next Olympics. Although he crashed while training in 2017 and received more than 60 face stitches, Shaun White never stopped coming back for more, and was up and running to clinch the gold at the 2018 games. 

Shaun’s career set a phenomenal standard for the new generation of snowboarders, and athletes in general. Announcers during his final runs were speaking of how he could be considered the Tom Brady or Tiger Woods of the half-pipe. Not only does he have three Olympic golds under his belt, but he also has many medals in both summer and winter X games, as he is the first athlete to compete and win medals in both games. He currently has five medals in skateboarding, ten medals in the superpipe, and nine in slopestyle from the X Games, as well as three halfpipe medals from the FIS World Cup Standings. On top of all the medals, Shaun White is the only athlete to score a perfect 100 in superpipe at the 2012 X Games in Aspen. Plus, he was on the cover of Forbes’ “30 under 30” magazine in 2016. 

In this last Olympics, he showed how much the sport has grown with him by landing back-to-back double corks that are now standard because of White. Shaun has thoroughly demonstrated how much the sport has grown since he first began. Because of him, many of the new generation of snowboarding superstars are kept at higher standards, trying brand new tricks, and accomplishing the impossible. In fact, 16-year-old Valentino Giseli finished in fifth place this year, competing right alongside the astonishing 35-year-old, proving how high Shaun has raised the game. 
Though he may have finished 4th in the 2022 Beijing Olympics, just barely eluding a medal, it is undeniable that Shaun White will go down in Olympic snowboarding half-pipe history as one of the greats.

By Samantha Weiner