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Shaun White

White in 2008
Personal information
Full name	Shaun Roger White
Born	(1986-09-03) September 3, 1986 (age 25) San Diego, California, U.S.
Height	5 ft 8 in (1.73 m)
Weight	154 pounds (70 kg)
Sport
Country	United States
Sport	Snowboarding, Skateboarding
Medal record Competitor for the  United States Men's snowboarding Olympic Games Gold 2006 Torino Halfpipe Gold 2010 Vancouver Halfpipe Winter Dew Tour medal record Gold 2008 Breckenridge Slopestyle Gold 2008 Breckenridge Superpipe Gold 2009 Mt. Snow Slopestyle Gold 2009 Mt. Snow Superpipe Gold 2009 Northstar Slopestyle Gold 2009 Northstar Superpipe Winter X Games medal record Gold 2003 Aspen Slopestyle Gold 2003 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2004 Aspen Slopestyle Gold 2005 Aspen Slopestyle Gold 2006 Aspen Slopestyle Gold 2006 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2008 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2009 Aspen Slopestyle Gold 2009 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2010 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2011 Aspen Superpipe Gold 2012 Aspen Superpipe Silver 2002 Aspen Slopestyle Silver 2002 Aspen Superpipe Silver 2007 Aspen Superpipe Bronze 2007 Aspen Slopestyle Bronze 2008 Aspen Slopestyle TTR World Snowboard Tour record Gold 2007 Overall Silver 2008 Overall U.S. Snowboarding Grand Prix medal record Gold 2006 Overall X Games medal record Men's skateboarding Gold 2007 Los Angeles Vert Gold 2011 Los Angeles Vert Silver 2005 Los Angeles Vert Silver 2010 Los Angeles Vert Bronze 2008 Los Angeles Vert Dew Tour medal record Men's skateboarding Gold 2007 Vert Gold 2007 Vert Gold 2008 Vert

Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986) is an American professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is a two-time Olympic gold medalist. He rides regular stance, twelve and negative three degrees on his board.^[1]

Early life[link]

White was born in San Diego, California. His ancestry includes Irish and Italian.^[2][3] He was born with a Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect for which he endured two open-heart operations before the age of one.^[4] He stands 5'8" (1.73 m) tall. White spent his formative years riding Okemo Mountain and Bear Mountain, small ski resorts found in Ludlow, Vermont, and the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.

Snowboarding career[link]

White's skateboard career took place during the same time he was rising through the snowboard ranks. White quickly drew the eyes of many in the skateboarder scene including professional skateboarder Tony Hawk. At this point Hawk befriended the nine-year-old White at a local skatepark and mentored him, helping him turn pro in skateboarding at the age of 17. White has gone on to win many titles on his skateboard, most notably winning the overall title of Action Sports Tour Champion, as well as being the first person to compete in and win both the Summer and Winter X Games in two different sports. Following in his older brother's footsteps, White switched from skiing to snowboarding at age six, and by age seven he received his first sponsorship. White has participated in two Winter Olympics in his career. At both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the snowboard halfpipe event. White has also participated in the Winter X Games, where he has won a medal every year since 2002. Including all winter X Games competitions through 2009, his medal count stands at 15 (10 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze), among which is the first quadruple win streak by a male athlete in one discipline, the snowboard slopestyle. White's streak was snapped in 2007 when he lost to Andreas Wiig and Teddy Flandreau, with White taking the bronze. He won the Air & Style Contest in 2003 and 2004.

2006 Winter Olympics[link]

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the half-pipe.^[5] After his first run in qualifications, White was almost out of competition, scoring only 37.7. On his second run, he recorded a score of 45.3. In the finals, White recorded a score of 46.8 (50 is the highest possible score) to win. Fellow American Danny Kass won the silver with a points total of 44.0.^[6]

2008[link]

Executing a near-flawless second run, White captured his third consecutive snowboard halfpipe title at the 2008 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships to go along with his third US Open slopestyle competition. This followed White's win at the 25th (2007) Burton US Open, where he placed third in slopestlyle and first in the halfpipe. At the 2007 Open, White was also crowned the first "Burton Global Open Champion". His take for the event was $100,000 (Global Open Champ), $20,000 (1st Place Halfpipe), $90,000 (3rd Place Slopestyle), and a new Corvette.

On November 16, 2008 White released his first videogame "Shaun White Snowboarding" in North America (November 14, 2008 in Europe). Shaun White:Snowboarding was the 20th best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States.^{[citation needed]}

2009[link]

White with Richard Branson in 2009

There was a lot of controversy over who won the 2009 SuperPipe at Winter X Games XIII^{[citation needed]}. Kevin Pearce had 5 hits in the pipe, and all were the same tricks White did in his final run. White, on the other hand, had 6 hits and he started off his run with a big backside rodeo 540 where Pearce started his run off with a big grab. Although Pearce went bigger, he only had 5 hits, and his first hit wasn't as technical as White's first hit.^{[citation needed]} Judges came to the conclusion that White deserved the better score because he started off with a more technical trick and he had 1 more hit than Pearce.^{[citation needed]} With the win, White became the second competitor, after Tanner Hall, to win a gold medal in the superpipe in consecutive years at the Winter X Games. He also won a gold medal in Slopestyle, finally winning gold after 2 straight years of bronze.

On February 14, 2009, White won the FIS World Cup Men's Halfpipe event at Vancouver's Cypress Mountain. Out of the gate in his first qualifying run, he qualified immediately with the day's best score of 45.5. With a thumb sprained on an over-rotated backside 1080 in the second qualifying run, he clinched the event with the first of his two runs in the finals. His first finals run was awarded the highest score ever in FIS halfpipe, a 47.3.

2010 Winter Olympics[link]

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, White again won gold in the halfpipe.^[7] In the finals, White recorded a score of 46.8 on his first run, which proved a high enough score to secure the gold medal without a second run. He performed his second run anyway, as a victory lap, ending his run with a well-anticipated Double McTwist 1260 which he named The Tomahawk.^[8] This second run resulted in a record score of 48.4 (50 is the highest possible score) enlarging his margin of victory. His nearest competitor won the silver with a points total of 45.0, 3.4 behind White.^[9]

2011[link]

After a sub-par performance in the Slopestyle, failing to reach the finals, White "redeemed" himself in the Superpipe. With an 89, he sat in second place going into his 2nd of three runs. He completed the run, landing his infamous Double McTwist 1260 and finishing with a score of 97.33 to take the lead and claim the historical 4th straight Gold in the Winter X Games, held in Aspen Colorado. The score tied an X Games record, which was set by White one year before. His 3rd run was a simple victory run featuring mostly straight air.^[10]

2012[link]

At Winter X, White became the first person to score a perfect 100 in the men's Snowboard Superpipe in the history of Winter X Games.

Athletic achievements[link]

• In 2003 White was the first to compete and medal in both the Summer and Winter X Games in two different sports.
• White is the first snowboarder ever to land back to back double corks, at the Red Bull superpipe.
• He remains the only skater to land the frontside heelflip 540 body varial. (The Armadillo).^[11]
• He was the first to land a Cab 7 Melon Grab in vert skateboarding.
• He is the first snowboarder to win back-to-back gold medals in the Winter X-Games Superpipe.
• He is also the first athlete ever (on snowboard or skis) to win gold medals four years in a row in the Winter X-Games Superpipe.
• He is the first (and only) person to win both a Summer and Winter Dew Cup.^[12]
• White was the first to "three-peat" in SuperPipe at the Winter X Games.
• Shaun White holds the record for the highest score in the men's halfpipe at the Winter Olympics. In 2006, his 46.8 points bested Ross Powers' previous record of 46.1 from 2002. In 2010, during the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, he improved his own record with 48.4 points in his final run.

Non-competition awards and accolades[link]

• White was named the "Chairman of the Board" on the Spike TV Guys' Choice Awards on June 13, 2007 and again on June 19, 2010.^[13]
• In the March 2009 issue of Snowboarder Magazine, he was named the ninth-best snowboarder in the World.^[14]
• He won the Revolver Golden Gods Award for "Most Metal Athlete".
• White has been named Transworld Snowboarding's Rider Of The Year twice.^[15]

Endorsements[link]

White has had a sponsor since he was seven years old. White signed CAA Sports for representation after working with IMG for eight years.^[16] Corporate endorsement deals include or have included Burton Snowboards, Oakley, Inc., Birdhouse Skateboards, Park City Mountain Resort, Target Corporation, Red Bull, Ubisoft, Adio and Hewlett-Packard. White also has his own character on the game Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder as well as the video game Shaun White Snowboarding and the upcoming video game Shaun White Skateboarding. In 2009, Forbes magazine estimated that he had earned $9 million from his endorsements in 2008.^[17]

Media appearances[link]

• He had his first published interview in TransWorld SNOWboarding Magazine in 2003.^[18]
• White starred in the 2005 snowboarding documentary First Descent.
• In 2007, White appeared on the E! reality TV show "The Girls Next Door" as a snowboarding teacher for Holly Madison, Bridget Marquardt and Kendra Wilkinson.^[19]
• White was one of the few pro snowboarders to be a guest editor of Snowboarder Magazine (February 2008 issue).^[20]
• The 2008 video game Shaun White Snowboarding is named after him, and the game was personally played and demonstrated by him at Nintendo's E3 2008 Press Conference.
• A film, Don't Look Down has been released on DVD and ESPN. The film tracks his journey through the year following his Olympic success.^[21]
• White was on the cover for The Complete Book of the Winter Olympics: 2010 Edition.^[22]
• White appeared as a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, March 2, 2010, recounting the story of how his mother had his first Olympic gold medal dry cleaned.^[23]
• White had a cameo appearance as himself in the 2011 film Friends with Benefits, starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis.

Personal life[link]

Addressing his perception of the nickname "The Flying Tomato", Rolling Stone wrote, "he used to embrace it, even wearing headbands with a flying-tomato logo, but he has grown tired of it." He has also been nicknamed as "animal", a reference to a character from the satirical puppet show The Muppet Show.^[24][25]

In February 2009, Red Bull built White a halfpipe completely out of natural snow in the back country of Colorado on the backside of Silverton Mountain, coordinates (37.838801,-107.710299).

See also[link]

• List of professional snowboarders

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Shaun White

• Shaun White at the International Ski Federation
• Official Site of Shaun White
• Red Bull's Secret Halfpipe — New Tricks
• TTR World Snowboard Tour Rider Profile (current standings in the world ranking with contest results)
• TransWorld SNOWboarding Magazine — coverage of White from age 14 on
• Snowboardermag.com — interviews and videos
• Shaun White at the Internet Movie Database
• Shaun White's U.S. Olympic Team bio
• AP Winter Games Athlete Profile: Shaun White
• AP: White's showstopper caps second Olympic gold
• AP: Inside the Rings: Shaun White blazes trails
• Shaun White Interview: Pop Magazine