Shaun White returns to final Olympics to cement legacy

At 35 years outdated, snowboarding icon Shaun White is about to compete on the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
REUTERS

ZHANGJIAKOU, China – Three-time gold medalist Shaun White has returned for his fifth and certain last Olympics seeking to cement his legacy on the mountains exterior Beijing in a sport that grew to become synonymous along with his title 16 years in the past.

White was 19 when he picked up his first gold on the 2006 Turin Video games and has since change into the world’s most profitable and distinguished snowboarder after he gained his third gold medal in dramatic style on the 2018 Pyeongchang Video games.

In recent times, the 35-year-old has suffered a slew of accidents, admitting in a Rolling Stone interview final month that the game was placing an growing pressure on his physique. The athlete, who's courting actress Nina Dobrev, additionally mentioned household life appealed to him.

Away from the halfpipe, White additionally just lately launched a luxurious snowboarding and life-style model, WHITESPACE, which incorporates a collaboration with the late Virgil Abloh of Louis Vuitton.

In January, White made a assured return on the Laax Open snowboard halfpipe in Switzerland, ending third behind Beijing favourite Ayumu Hirano of Japan and Swiss Jan Scherrer. Beaming and high-fiving followers after the competitors, White seemed relaxed after a run that featured a Double McTwist 1260.

The Swiss contest got here simply weeks after White, who was born with a coronary heart defect, recovered from a bout of COVID-19, which he contracted over the vacations.

On Tuesday, White shared an Instagram video of his airplane touching down in Beijing, adopted by footage of his bus driving into the Chinese language capital forward of the official opening of the Winter Video games this week.

White will face an ever-younger crop of rivals when he drops into the snowboard halfpipe competitors beginning subsequent Wednesday.

In a publish on Instagram forward of the Video games, White seemed again on his profession on the slopes, noting that he had spent the previous 29 years on a snowboard, 23 of them as an expert athlete.

“I’m so proud that I helped develop and form the game into what it's in the present day. I can’t wait to see the place the subsequent technology takes it.”