Shaun White Looks To Become Three Time Olympic Champion In Halfpipe

Shaun White pulled out of the slopestyle — the newest Olympic snowboarding event — to focus on the halfpipe; the event in which he won gold medals at Vancouver in 2010 and Turin in 2006. Now he has something to prove.

Many criticized “The Flying Tomato” for withdrawing his name from an event for which he could have made history; possibly becoming the first American to win gold in slopestyle. Instead, a lesser known Sage Kotsenburg came seemingly out of nowhere to claim the top spot for the US in the historic win.

In Turin, Shaun White became the synonym of snowboarding with his long red hair and flamboyant personality. Certainly, he fit what most think someone competing in the sport should look and act like.

Now at 27-years-old, a more mature version of himself is making the best decisions for the Sochi Olympics and he is focusing on the halfpipe, where he will defend his gold medal from 2010.

On Wednesday, Shaun White could make history in his sport, becoming the first male American snowboarder to win three Winter Olympic gold medals.

When White unexpectedly announced he was withdrawing from the slopestyle event this past Saturday due to course safety concerns, and to focus on his signature event, he got some backlash; none more public than that of two Canadian foes Max Parrot and Sebastien Toutant.

Both took to Twitter taunting the veteran Shaun White, Parrot saying the American was “scared to compete” the slopestyle and Toutant wrote the two-time gold medalist “thought he could not win.”

A record of the tweets doesn’t exist as they both deleted the comments and later apologized to the American.

“I’m just mad about that because I want to compete against him,” Parrot told reporters at Thursday’s qualifying. “I want to know who is better.”

While Toutant, who finished in third place in the qualifiers, said, “Some American is probably (…) sitting at home angry” after Shaun White took their Olympic spot on the slopestyle team and then dropped out of the competition, referring to 18-year-old Brandon Davis of California, who told Time magazine he was a little miffed.

Others criticized Shaun White for departing from the carefree attitude athletes in this discipline are known for, even though, he trains harder than anyone out there.

Shaun White summed up his feelings about Wednesday’s halfpipe event during a press conference:

“It’s great to be on top of the sport that’s ever changing. Halfpipe carries a bit more weight because it’s a defending situation.”

Responding to the wave of bad press he got after withdrawing from the slopestyle, Shaun White said:

“I can understand if it’s your first time to the Olympics, you wouldn’t understand a decision like the one I made. But you set your goals according to what’s important to you. Halfpipe is important to me and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.”

“I definitely take things a bit more seriously nowadays because I’m just getting older,” Shaun White said last week. “When you’re younger, you don’t really think about it. You just have long red hair and do your jumps and tricks.”