At the finish line, she took off her helmet and tears streamed down. The icon of sport and the richest athlete of the Olympics was no longer a gibberish

When, after Friday’s final run, he left the gutter and took off his black helmet, we saw tears in his eyes. No, it was not a mistake made the moment before, which deprived him of the chance to win a medal in the snowboard halfpipe. For Shaun White, fourth place was a success anyway, many wondered if the 35-year-old American would even make it to the finals. These tears were tears of emotions – accumulated layers of joy, sadness, fulfillment and emotion. – Snowboard, thank you. You are the love of my life – he thanked his board in front of the cameras.

Although the American’s last appearance will not be the Hollywood culmination of a tumultuous career, it will go down in history anyway. Anyway, Shaun White is simply the history of snowboarding at the Winter Olympics.

His greatness is evidenced by the circumstances of his farewell. The stands of the pandemic games in Beijing are usually empty, but on Friday, where snowboarders competed, it was different. Lots of athletes from various disciplines and countries came to the competition, and the interview zone was bursting at the seams with journalists from all over the world. They were all there just to watch White’s last run.

– I cannot describe how many different emotions I have now. At the bottom, the fans are cheering, at the top, the rivals congratulate me, but I didn’t win a medal. Nevertheless, I am very happy. For now, I just want to thank everyone who watched me, said White in tears in front of the NBC cameras. It was then that he thanked his board. The board that gave him everything. Successes, money, place in pop culture.

Remarkable talent appreciated by Tony Hawk

Americans love stories like White’s. The parents of the 35-year-old master did not earn much, and during the first years of their younger son’s life they were worried about his health. White was born with a congenital heart defect. Before his first birthday, he had two open-heart surgeries.

When he recovered, his whole life was a board. He owes his love to Jessie – his older brother, who was his first sports role model, and to his parents. Cathy and Roger not only built a ramp by the house, but also bought a van and spent nearly every weekend in the mountains helping their sons develop their passions.

White had an extraordinary talent and intuition to balance on the board. Even though he loved mountains and snowboarding, he won his first competitions on a skateboard when he was a few years old. When he was seven, his sponsor was Burton, one of the largest snowboard equipment companies.

White’s talent was also noticed by Tony Hawk, the skateboarding icon. The American even anointed a kid as his successor, but then he had no idea what his career would turn out to be. – He was phenomenal. Although he did not know the names of all acrobatics, he performed them better than any of his contemporaries. He had an extraordinary gift, said Hawk.

This extraordinary gift led White to extraordinary popularity at a very young age. Shaun was under 15 when he nearly qualified for the Salt Lake City Olympics. Only a year later, he triumphed for the first time at the winter X Games, ie the extreme sports championship, which in the USA enjoys greater popularity comparable to the Olympics.

“Lataj ± cy Pomidor” is conquering the world of pop culture

White has become their icon – in the winter X Games he won as many as 15 gold medals, to which he added three silver and two bronze. And in 2007, he became the first player in history to win a gold medal for both Winter and Summer X Games in various disciplines. In Los Angeles, of course, he triumphed on a skateboard.

White presented himself to the world audience at the Olympics in Turin. Snowboarding was still a relatively young Olympic discipline, it did not have its stars yet. And then he jumped out – 20-year-old, energetic, smiling, expressive, with a storm of long, red hair. He won the gold medal in the halfpipe competition and the “Flying Tomato”, as it came to be called, was already spoken by the whole world. Four years later, White repeated his success by winning gold in Vancouver. And the rage began.

Mountain Dew, T-Mobile, PlayStation, Hewlett-Packard, Jeep and Motorola – these are just some of the sponsors that appeared in his life. “The sponsorship deals alone give the American $ 8-9 million a year. Profits come from the sale of his own brand clothing and snowboard equipment signed with his name, participation in popular TV programs and the sale of rights to create new ones about himself. documentaries and computer games “- in 2014.

And he added: “White, who will turn 28 in September, is an idol not because he has two Olympic golds to his credit. For his countrymen it is much more important that he is following the American dream. He has come from He was the richest athlete of the Winter Olympics as a child. corvette “.

White starred in the series and film opposite Justin Timberlake. He had a computer game signed with his name. In 2006, ESPN named him “one of the richest teens in the world with no inheritance”. Five years later Bloomberg placed him in second place among the most influential US athletes. White lost only to NFL player Peyton Manning – ahead of, among others, Tiger Woods, Tom Brady, LeBron James, Michael Phelps and Kobe Bryant.

A painful landing and a spoiled image

White smiled but did not find happiness. – It seemed to everyone that after the Olympics in Turin my life was colorful like a rainbow and additionally covered with frosting. It was exactly the opposite – said the American years later in an interview with the “Los Angeles Times”.

And he added: – I’ve been to many parties where people would come up to me and pat me on the shoulder like a friend, and I didn’t remember who they were. I was 20 and I was only interested in having fun. Mainly I was thinking about buying a new car and about fucking driving it.

Over time, White has gone from being an idol of American kids to a guy who has the reputation of being one of the biggest bastards in the US. While one of his greatest rivals, Kevin Pearce, publicly boasted of the ramp built by Nike, White trained in solitude and secret on the ramp built for him by Red Bull, where he was blown artificial snow.

In 2016, a scandal broke out around White. Lena Zawaideh – a former drummer in a rock band in which the American played guitar – accused him of a number of sexual offenses. Zawaideh claimed that White had harassed her for years, persuaded her to wear defiant lingerie on stage, forced her to watch erotic films, and sent her naked pictures. The case ended in 2017, when the athlete paid the woman an undisclosed amount of money.

White’s image has suffered a lot. The image Shaun cared for from an early age. When he had 14, a boy approached him and asked for an autograph on the poster. The teenage star did not refuse, but noted that he himself looked ill on the poster. “The trick I was doing wasn’t looking right and my face was terrible,” he recalled. After the incident, White called his manager and asked how to avoid situations in which his image was misused.

“I have lost my love for my passion”

All the non-sporting matters and the turmoil in White’s career took a toll on his form. The American went to the Sochi Olympics as a favorite to win not one, but two gold medals. In halfpipe he was supposed to take his puck at ease, in slopestyle, which made his debut at the Olympics in Russia, he was also supposed to be a favorite. Both starts, however, White ended with nothing.

– I had acrobatics prepared for the victory, but I had no motivation to do them well. I am talking about it with sadness because for some time I have lost my love for my passion. I took care of everything but her. I recorded and toured with my band, I was interested in completely different things. I couldn’t find any motivation to snowboard after winning two gold medals at the Olympics, said White.

– It wasn’t about my physical form. More squats would not help me, he explained. – I had to find a way to restart and regain the passion. I spent several months at home in Malibu. I used to meet my friends and party. The time has finally come that I got bored of it. I missed snowboarding, I missed winning. I surrounded myself with new people, hired a trainer and a physiotherapist. Finally, I could say that I am an athlete.

– In retrospect, I believe that it is a good thing that I failed in Sochi. I do not rule out that if I had won the third gold medal there, I would never have participated in any competition again. I would probably feel saturated.

62 face seams. “My face was massacred”

Although the Americans no longer looked at White in the same way, he did regain his lost attraction to the sport. His main goal was not to multiply the already considerable financial achievements, but to regain the title of Olympic champion. White was preparing hard for the Games in Pyeongchang, and even a very serious accident did not prevent him on his way to his goal.

In October 2017, just a few months before the Olympics, the American fell during training in New Zealand. He landed so unfortunate that he fell on his face, which ended up with 62 stitches for him, including on the lips and tongue. – I couldn’t recognize myself in the mirror. My face was massacred. The only minor wounds I had were on my forehead and nose, said White.

– Many doubts arose then. I started to wonder if this is what I want. I was afraid that such an event could happen again at any moment. I wasn’t sure the success was worth the sacrifice. Of course I also fell before, but it never ended with such serious injuries. Even though my family persuaded me that I didn’t have to prove anything to anyone, the coaches and people around me persuaded me to start. It was worth it – he added.

It was worth it, because in Pyeongchang White made history as the first competitor to win three gold medals in snowboarding at the Olympic Games. His gold was also the hundredth that the US representatives won at the Winter Games.

“We had a lot of fun together, didn’t we?”

– It was special, because even though everyone saw me as a favorite, I didn’t feel like one. After the accident, I had a blockage and fears in my head. I’ve never felt anything like that, because in every game so far I was sure to win – recalled White.

Although the American did not write such a story at the Beijing Olympics, after contracting a coronavirus infection and recovering from several injuries, on February 11, 2022, it became a history of the Winter Olympics. “Without him, nothing will be the same. A huge part of this discipline has passed away with him” – such words were spoken in the summary of Friday’s competition on NBC.

– When did I make my decision? One day before the games I looked at the sunset and after it I came to the conclusion that it was time for me. It is still a strange moment for me, but also a joyful one. We had a lot of fun together, didn’t we? White asked defiantly.