x
Breaking News
More () »

Shaun White regains love for snowboarding after Sochi disappointment

Shaun White is returning to the Winter Games after a disappointing fourth-place finish in Sochi that didn't break him but did change the four years that followed.
SNOWMASS, CO - JANUARY 13: Shaun White #2 celebrates his score of his final run in the Men's Snowboard Halfpipe final during the Toyota U.S. Grand Prix on January 13, 2018 in Snowmass, Colorado. 

Months before a training crash in the halfpipe would leave him with 62 stitches in his face, Shaun White describes the balance he’d gained in his life since the last Olympics, the perspective he got from not winning.

In a warm hotel room in the closing days of summer, far away from the icy halfpipe that became a crucible before Sochi, that perspective is easy to hold.

Fast-forward to December, and White keeps it in his grasp as the process intensifies. He’s missed the Dew Tour finals, a setback as he tries to qualify for the U.S. team. Four years ago, he would have been on the next flight back to California.

But White remembers all he’s learned and colors the experience differently, viewing it as an opportunity to see other riders’ finals runs rather than a missed chance to put down his own.

He stays on the mountain and rides with friends. He has fun, and the snowboarding icon continues down the more balanced path he’s created toward his fourth Olympics.

“Honestly, I love the sport now,” he told USA TODAY in August. “It’s so funny. I don’t want to say now. It’s just again.

“The biggest improvement was getting right with myself, getting right with my mind-set and being inspired again, being excited being a snowboarder and just go to the mountain and take runs for fun, get back to those beginning reasons of why I did the sport in the first place.”

That recalibration has White, 31, returning to the Games after a disappointing fourth-place finish in Sochi that didn’t break him but did change the four years that followed.

Practically, he is sticking with halfpipe after being worn down by trying to do that plus slopestyle in 2014. Mentally, he has battled the disappointment of that loss and navigated the fear that came from that October crash.

White punched his ticket to Pyeongchang in the U.S. Grand Prix two weeks ago, landing a monster run that included the trick he crashed on — a cab double cork 1440 — and scored a perfect 100.

“It’s just been this kind of like ongoing battle,” White said in August, months before injuring himself attempting it in New Zealand.

While significant, the injuries were superficial, White says, and didn’t stop his riding. He’d learned it because Iouri Podladtchikov used a different variation to win gold in Sochi.

As he did with the double McTwist 1260 before Vancouver, White learned it after he lost a contest.

“It’s a dangerous spot to see him in,” said JJ Thomas, White’s coach. “When he’s motivated, he’s scary for the other guys.”

Part of that motivation comes from a rebalancing of his life after Sochi. With gold medals from Torino and Vancouver, White had never gone to an Olympics and lost.

But he found he could survive it.

“It was almost to see him be a human being might have taken some of the pressure off him a little bit,” good friend Jonny Smith said. “He wants to win, but there was a point where it humanized him a little bit.”

White nurtured the relationships with family and friends who supported him even after the disappointing finish. After years of seeing photos on social media of his friends at a party or celebrating a birthday and feel like he was missing out, White stayed home more in California or brought them along.

The annual trips to New Zealand to train became less of an obligation when he looked at it as a privilege to go, inviting Smith along to go mountain biking and bungee jumping.

White recently spent two weeks staying with Smith and his family while he was moving to a new house, and Smith jokes it’s easy to forget White’s fame when he’s napping in a toddler bed.

“I was like, I’ll crash in the baby’s room for a couple days and watch Netflix,” White said.

Added Smith, “He could have stayed in a hotel, and he just obviously wanted to watch Disney movies with me and my 20-month-old kid and hang out with us.”

The intensity that weighed him down before Sochi is gone. To be sure, he still wants to win at everything, even Monopoly, especially Monopoly, Smith said.

But he restructured after Sochi, bringing in a new management team, trainer, physical therapist and replacing longtime coach Bud Keene.

He often travels with Toby Miller, a 17-year-old rider whose excitement for the sport is a good reminder for White after two decades as a pro.

“I’m walking into it with a better peace of mind and a better outlook on things,” White said, “so I think in turn I’m getting a better response from whatever I’m doing.”

That renewed love of snowboarding has him motivated to keep going.

A five-time X Games medalist in skateboarding, White is considering trying that sport in its Olympic debut in Tokyo.

After that, he expects to be back on snow for the Beijing Games in 2022.

But Pyeongchang calls, offering White not just another chance at a gold medal but an opportunity to draw upon the perspective he’s gained.

“I’m just hoping to show up and ride like I know I can, put the runs down,” White said. “If I do that, I’m totally content.”

Axon also reported from Breckenridge, Colo.

Before You Leave, Check This Out