ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Shaun White has more Olympic gold medals in the halfpipe than any other snowboarder. But in his final competition he could not get one more.
White finished fourth at the Beijing Olympics on Friday, capping off a career in which he won three gold medals but couldn’t beat progressive younger riders and his aging body.
White landed four double corks in his first run, earning him a score that was good enough for fourth. After his second run, he was still in fourth place but fell on his final run finishing his last Olympics just off the podium.
Japan's Ayumu Hirano won the gold medal in a controversial final that saw him land a triple cork – the first ever in a full run in a halfpipe competition – in his second run but not get the scores from the judges to move him into first. He was still behind Australian Scotty James after that second run much to fans' disappointment.
On his final run as the last rider in the halfpipe, Hirano landed back-to-back triple corks and was rewarded with 96 points to surpass James and take the gold. Jan Scherrer of Switzerland won bronze. Taylor Gold of the United States finished fifth.
Hirano, whose younger brother Kaishu also competed Friday, entered the Games as one of the favorites having won silver at the last two Olympics. The 23-year-old also competed in the Tokyo Summer Olympics in skateboarding.
At age 35, White finishes his career with four Olympic medals, three of them gold, in five Games. Over his two decades of competition, he became the face of snowboarding, at least to a wide audience.
After just barely missing the 2002 Olympic team, White emerged as a star in Torino four years later. At 19, he won gold, was dubbed The Flying Tomato and brought mainstream attention to the sport.
Another gold followed in Vancouver in 2010 and White, by then a household name, had even casual fans aware of the trick he created to help win, the Double McTwist 1260.
White entered Sochi in 2014 as the favorite, with plenty of hype and even a documentary, “Russia Calling,” chronicling his journey to those Games. He made the U.S. team in slopestyle, too, before pulling out of that competition once in Russia.
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White finished a disappointing fourth, a result he later said of having too much on his plate going into those Games.
That finish made him an underdog going into Pyeongchang in 2018, and White said he had to find his love of snowboarding again. In the lead-up to those Games, he suffered a training crash in New Zealand that split his lip and required 62 stitches in his face.
But White conquered the trick that so injured him, landing back-to-back double cork 1440s to win.
That win brought him to today, his last contest where he didn’t enter as a favorite. He left the Games appreciative of what his success in them has brought him, even if he couldn’t add more to it this time.
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