A run to be remembered

Winning was not enough for Shaun White on the 17th of February 2010 in Vancouver. When he pushed off into the halfpipe on his final run, the snowboarder from sunny San Diego already had Olympic gold under his belt - his second, having also won the competition in Turin in 2006. And yet: “I wanted a victory run that would be remembered,” White recalled. So he unpacked his signature move; the trick that is still associated with him to this day. The Double McTwist 1260: three and a half turns around the body axis with two somersaults.

White was already an icon of his sport that day in 2010. “It's impossible to beat him,” said Finland's Peetu Piiroinen, who finished second: “…unless he falls.” White won his third Olympic gold in the halfpipe at Pyeongchang 2018 and even competed in Beijing in 2022, at the age of 36. Explaining his motivation, White explained: “It's not just about staying in the sport as long as possible, it's about constantly showing people new tricks”.

After finishing fourth in Beijing, White declared that his competitive career was over. Today, he is active as a skateboarder, musician, actor and entrepreneur with his own lifestyle brand, ‘Whitespace’. Ultimately, though, Shaun White will be remembered as one thing above all: an icon of snowboarding.