On road to fifth Games, White finds risk is worth it
COPPER MOUNTAIN, Colo. — One of Shaun White’s greatest fears is finding himself upsidedown above a halfpipe with no idea where he’s going to land.
Time and again over two decades, he has decided the risk is worth it.
As he embarked this month on the quest to make his fifth Olympics, the world’s most famous halfpipe rider says living a life full of calculated risks is still part of his DNA — a mindset that, these days, is less taken for granted in all-or-nothing sports such as his than it was a mere 12 months ago.
“I’ve been lost in the air before, and it’s terrifying,” White said in an interview with The Associated Press. “You’re flying around and you don’t know where you are and you’re hoping for the best. The sky color matches the color of the snow. We never really had a name for that. I was intrigued when I heard they call it the ‘twisties’ in gymnastics.”
Simone Biles’ decision to pull out of the women’s team final at the Tokyo Games earlier this year resonated with athletes throughout the world, including White, and advanced the conversation about many of the mental health challenges Olympians face.
Just as twisting and somersaulting over a vault can be a life-threatening endeavor, doing the same over an icy, rock-hard halfpipe is among the most dangerous of Olympic pursuits. White was famously helicoptered off the halfpipe in New Zealand after a grisly wreck in the run-up to the 2018 Olympics. When he overcame the 62stitch injury to his face and won the gold medal in Pyeongchang, it marked a stunning crescendo to a comeback that even he wasn’t sure was possible.
White believes the key to an athlete putting him or herself at risk over and over again is knowing you’re doing it for the right reasons — a key component missing from Biles’ mindset when she stepped away.
“It’s scary to be out there alone,” White said. “And when you go out and do that, you want it to be your choice. You don’t want to feel like you have to do this because of some reason other than, ‘Hey, I want to do this.’”
The stakes will be every bit as high, if not higher, this year. A triple cork jump — involving 1620 degrees of spin above the halfpipe — could very well be the trick needed to win the Olympics. It involves another half-revolution of spin than the back-toback 1440s that White used to win in South Korea. White used to practice the triple cork into an air bag, but nobody has yet pulled it off in a high-stakes contest.