White keeps lots of irons in fire
Snowboarder’s eye is on 2018 Games, other interests
Shaun White was dancing in the rain.
He was getting his groove on Sunday night near a concert stage, within view of a 16-story snowboard jump, the centerpiece at his competition and music festival Air + Style. Without warning, White, the two-time Olympic gold medalist, waded into the sea of spectators, and his publicist, after an effort to find him, headed back to the media room.
“I couldn’t keep up with him,” she said.
It’s a hazard of living in White’s world.
Over the last month, the 30year-old made stops in Calgary, where he was training; Aspen, Colo., where in the X Games he finished 11th in the halfpipe; Mammoth, Calif., where he won a Grand Prix event; New York, for a media blitz with the 2018 Olympics to be hosted by South Korea exactly one year away; and Pyeongchang, South Korea, where Saturday he finished runner-up in a test event in the halfpipe where the Olympic competition will be held.
Then he was off yet again — not to compete but to host the Air + Style Festival he runs.
A man who knew White had been in South Korea looked stunned when he saw White at Air + Style on Sunday in Los Angeles.
“How’d you even get back here?” White was asked. White grinned. “Dude, I don’t know,” he said. “We got right on the bus, changed in the car, went to the airport, and now I’m here.”
So goes life for the guy who has won 18 X Games medals for snowboarding and five more X Games medals for skateboarding. He played guitar in the rock band Bad Things before it broke up — he’s taking piano and singing lessons — and has developed into an entrepreneur. In addition to Air + Style, which also has events in Beijing and Austria, White owns a clothing brand, equity in two California ski mountains (Mammoth and Big Bear) and equity in Halfpops, a snack food brand.
“Yeah, I snowboard, but that’s not who I am or all that I am and all that I have to offer,” White said. “So I do pursue other goals and other things. It’s fun. It’s fulfilling for me to do it.”
But after all the globetrotting, hopscotching and juggling, here’s where White said he hopes his winding road leads: back to the Olympic medals podium, where he failed to get during the 2014 Winter Olympics after a stunning fourth-place finish.
For all of his impressive travel, his Olympics success will hinge on his signature amplitude in the halfpipe, his ability to land jumps and his focus. His hectic schedule and recent snapshots are reason to wonder.
The long locks are long gone, and the redheaded wunderkind is no longer a kid. In fact, if White qualifies for the U.S. team as he expects, he will be 31 when the snowboarding competition begins in Pyeongchang. At Air + Style, White looked noticeably older than many of the 30 snowboarders and spectators — about 35,000 people attended the twoday event that featured 20 bands and snowboarders, according to an event organizer.
“It keeps getting brought up,” White said of his age. “So then you start to think about it more. … I’m a little bit older, but it definitely hasn’t affected me in the way people would assume. I think there’s an ebb and flow in everything. Like stocks.”
Shaun White stock did a nosedive after the 2014 Sochi Games, where he abruptly withdrew from the inaugural slopestyle event and then finished fourth in the halfpipe. Subsequently, he decided against competing in slopestyle, hired a new coach and a trainer.
Noting that he’s had trainers in the past, White chuckled when he said, “I actually do the work now.”
Ankle surgery in November and his 11th-place finish in the X Games sent White stock tumbling again. His victory at Mammoth boosted it, and his runner-up showing in South Korea, well, White offered details.
Before the qualifications, he went shopping. “I went to town,” he said, noting he bought five suits and some coats. After taking the top spot in qualifying by a healthy margin, White went shopping again rather than practicing. A day later, Scotty James of Australia overtook White in the final and won gold. White told reporters that shopping fatigue cost him in the finals.
“I’m just disappointed in myself, although it’s super nice suits I got,” he was quoted as saying. “So I hope there is less shopping next time and taking it more serious.”
He arrived in Los Angeles in his signature all black. He paraded around the grounds, signing autographs, posing for selfies and mingling. And with the 2018 Games and a shot at redemption almost a year away and The Louis Child’s music pounding, Shaun White danced in the rain.