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In some ways, Shaun White’s next trip to the Winter Olympics may be the toughest yet.
Four years after retiring, White is now trying to shape his sport outside of the halfpipe where he once commanded, and White says he fully looks forward to his upcoming journey. Italy — where he won the first of three gold medals in the country — it’s been an exciting journey, perhaps with some unexpected twists.
“I think my big goal is to get Snoopy (Dogg) on a snowboard,” he said, while also nodding towards his potential appearance alongside the rapper-turned-Olympic enthusiast. nbc TV broadcasts, and the new world he was about to enter now that his competitive riding days were over.
In an interview with The Associated Press, White discussed his role as an action sports leader in the Ice League halfpipe circuit a year ago, what it’s like to be single again and his thoughts on being an Olympic spectator for the first time since 2002.
“I’ll try to keep things consistent, but yeah, it’s going to be an exciting day,” he said of the men’s halfpipe final, scheduled for February 13.
White welcomes the opportunity to shape the future of the sport
In his heyday, White was the first rider to aggressively push for victory without apology in a sport that was more laid-back. Just as he reframed the narrative of snowboarding during his 20-plus years in the halfpipe, he hopes to use his influence in retirement to chart a new course for its future.
His new league is reimagining what halfpipe racing means. Instead of the traditional method of judges assessing scores and letting the highest score win, it introduced a knockout tournament in which judges selected the winner through best-of-three, one-on-one battles. On the first two slides, riders have to drop into the pipe from opposite sides—even the best, harder than it sounds.
White recruited reigning Olympic champion Ayumu Hirano, also an Olympic gold medalist Gu Ailin The freeskiing portion of the show debuted last month on the same halfpipe in China where Google starred and White bid a tearful farewell to the Olympics four years ago.
Perhaps most importantly, White has secured the wherewithal to continue offering generous bonuses — something that is never a given in snowboarding, and nothing is, considering Olympic champion Michael Johnson’s failed attempt to start a multimillion-dollar track league over the summer.
Linda Henry of Fenway Sports Group and 359 Capital, a big investor in sports startups, participated in The Snow League’s latest investment round of approximately $15 million.
“I think it’s important because it’s not just me that’s digging into my pocket,” White said.
Follow the example of the best riders and shape the next chapter of the sport
White was just 19 with a head of bright red hair – a “flying tomato” – when he hit the halfpipe in the small Italian winter village of Bardonecchia, this year’s venue is Livigno, across the Alps.
Shortly after winning the 2006 Turin Olympics, White found himself on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, shirtless and with an American flag draped over his shoulders. It’s the best sign yet that White and his fellow action sports buddies are officially becoming mainstream.
Now, not only is he a skier, he’s an Olympic champion. In next month’s game, he will be VIP But not a competitor. He’ll become the most famous rider on the mountain, but won’t start skiing right away.
“I feel like I’m going to be there in a special way,” he said. “I hope this feels like a great, positive feeling and is something I want to come back to and do again and again over the years.”
Much of what happened on the Italian halfpipe — including his signature triple cork jump, as well as the still-very relevant Double McTwist 1260 and other tricks no one thought of before White did it — will be the culmination of decades of chasing its biggest stars by other riders in this high-risk, high-reward sport.
“Very inspiring,” White said after hearing Hirano tell him that he and his brothers used to run home from school in Japan to watch his skiing videos.
White said that while he loves what he does for pro skaters, a recent interaction with several young skiers at a camp he co-owns in Oregon made him realize the role he can play in the growing sport.
“They said ‘One day we’ll join your ice league,'” White said. “I said ‘Yeah. You probably will.’ That’s what we want. We want someone who’s young and excited about the sport and sees their future competing in the league and hopefully one day playing in the Olympics.”
After breakup, “I’m just working on myself”
White is no stranger to the spotlight, with various phases of his private life playing out in public over the decades.
His split from actress Nina Dobrev, which became public in September, also received widespread publicity.
“It was a huge change in my life,” he said of the broken engagement in his first public comments. “Being with someone for almost six years. I wish her the best. It’s one of those things where you plan to be with someone forever and everything needs to fit.”
He said people see breakup news on Instagram and say “well, why?” They try to come up with their own reasons, but none of them are true. “
He didn’t delve into the “why.”
“But I’ve been working on myself, working on my career, working on my company, and trying to figure out, what is the next chapter of my life going to look like?” he said.
No comeback plan, but muscle memory remains
White recounted returning to the halfpipe for the first time in recent years at the end of a commercial shoot with snowboarders Danny Kass and Maddie Mastro. The muscle memory is still there.
“In the fourth round, I shot a front-double 10 and it worked,” he said of a trick he will perform at next month’s Olympics. “It’s like, ‘What would it look like if I kept running and ran a few more times?'”
But he said he would leave the comeback task to Lindsay Vonn, who is 41 years old and two years older than White. He said it was not medical reasons that caused him to hang it up after an emotional farewell at the Beijing Olympics four years ago.
But the travel, solitude and single-minded pursuit made the idea of mentally preparing him for another run nearly impossible.
“I’m trying to focus on not looking back at this pasture, but let’s look forward to this new frontier,” White said. “It’s just awesome. I feel like I love this sport more than I ever have.”
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AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
