The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
White claims gold hard way
Snowboarder earns third halfpipe title after difficult run.
PEONGCHANG, SOUTH KOREA — Snowboarding at the Olympics turned 20 this year, and there’s a good chance that in another two decades, people will still be talking about American Shaun White.
It wasn’t so much that White won his third gold medal to place his name among the greatest to compete in the Olympics.
It was the way he did it Wednesday.
His winning run capped a contest that was the best, in terms of difficulty, showmanship and guts, of any ever seen on a halfpipe.
It came with the pressure of knowing he had to land the most difficult run he ever attempted, or settle for silver.
It included two jumps, each with 1440 degrees of spin, that White, 31, said he had never landed in succession — not even in practice.
“I knew I had it in me,” he said. “The fear was out of the door. I’m at the Olympics. I had to do it. I’m standing at the top, in my favorite position, with the pressure of the world and one run to go. Man, it brings out the best in me. I’m so glad that’s a part of me as a competitor.” On the winning trip, White got the tough stuff out of the way early, dropping straight into the halfpipe, flying nearly 20 feet above it and whipping his body around twice while going head-over-heels two times for the first 1440. He landed high enough on the wall to gather sufficient speed to travel to the other side and essentially do a mirror image of the first trick.
From there, it was simply a matter of staying upright.
He performed what’s known as the Sky Hook — a 20-foot vault above the deck in which he bent himself into the shape of a comma, while grabbing the board and tweaking it up toward his backside to show judges the style they demand. His final trick was one he pat- ented: the Double McTwist 1260, in which he took off from the wall for two flips with 1½ twists, grabbing the board and wrestling it over his head to complete the jump and stick the landing.
He knew he’d done it, but the wait was agonizing; he tried not to look at the judges.
The score came up: 97.75. It beat Ayumu Hirano’s second-run score of 95.25.