White drops plans for Olympic bid as a skateboarder
Defending snowboarding gold medallist decides he will stick with Winter Games
American Shaun White is sticking to the surface he knows best. The three-time Olympic gold medallist in snowboarding won’t attempt to qualify for this summer’s Tokyo Olympics in skateboarding.
“The decision became less about going for skate and more about, am I willing to walk away from snow?” White told The Associated Press in Vail, Colo. “It just was going in that direction, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it and I can’t wholeheartedly choose this path with what I’ve got going on snow.”
The chance to become one of those rare athletes who have competed in both the Winter and Summer Games was attractive, and he finished 13th in the skateboarding world championships last summer as he tried to make the switch to park, which features halfpipes and quarterpipes along with stairs and rails. White’s forte, vert skateboarding contests that more closely align with snowboarding’s halfpipe, is not part of the Olympic program.
In the end, he chose to focus on his pursuit of a fourth gold medal in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
“It doesn’t mean I’m committed to going to China, but it doesn’t feel too far-fetched for me,” White, 33, said. “I still feel great and that’s where it got left for me. I’m dipping back into snow, and doing what feels right.”
After a disappointing performance in Sochi, White again won gold in Pyeongchang and, with skateboarding added to the Olympics starting in 2020, he set Tokyo in his sights. “It would mean the world to me to compete in skating,” he said at the 2018 Winter Games. “It’d be great.”
After all, skateboarding was the sport in which he first excelled and drew attention. He struck up a friendship with Tony Hawk before he was 10 years old, and was a professional skateboarder at 17. He launched a skateboarding video game in 2010 and was the first athlete to compete in — and win — both the Summer and Winter X Games.
But doubling up in Olympic competition would have divided his attention. More than 130 athletes, including 10 Americans, have competed in the Winter and Summer Games, but only five have won medals in both. Only Eddie Eagan of the U.S. has won gold in both (in boxing in 1920 and 1924, and in bobsled in 1932). White admitted two years ago that “a hard decision” lay ahead.
“To be at the top of the game of snowboarding and then decide all of a sudden to let my competitors have two years of practice on me while I pursue skateboarding ... it’s a big decision,” he said. “It’s a lot to sacrifice to go for something like that, so I’m going to make that choice in time.”