In fact, I put it to you that halfpipe is still THE blue riband event at the Games, and here’s why…

Simply put, there is nothing else in the sport that comes close to it for pure spectacle and drama.

“But wait!” I hear you cry. “What about slopestyle? It’s amazing to watch!”* Well, sure.  I’ll concede that it’s more relatable to the kind of riding most of us do (minus a thousand or so degrees of rotation). And yes, we’ve been treated to some incredible park runs since slope made its Olympic debut in Sochi, not least Jamie Anderson’s dominant back-to-back victories, Zoi Sadawoski-Synnott’s earth-shattering last hit and the out-of-the-box stylings of Sage Kotsenburg and Red Gerard.

“The crowd is heaving, the fans are raucous, and they’re right there – pitchside”

But that’s the TV version. As someone who’s spent a fair bit of time lugging a camera up and down the hill at real life snowboard events, I can tell you that slopestyle kinda sucks as a live spectacle. The course is long and the (usually small) crowd is strung out along it, miles away from the action. To use a football analogy, it’s like watching a Champions League match at one of those half-empty continental stadiums with an athletics track around the pitch.

A halfpipe final, by contrast, is like Anfield under the lights. The crowd is heaving, the fans are raucous, and they’re right there – pitchside. A proper sporting cauldron.

And here we come to the drama. Into this boiling atmosphere step a select few gladiators, soaring high above the heads and flashbulbs of us mortals, cheating death with their mind-boggling tricks on the iciest and most terrifying of transitions. Now, as I mentioned before, most of these competitors are the same old faces – event after event, year after year. This is the ultimate niche format, after all. But halfpipe’s weakness here is also its biggest strength. Why? Because sport needs rivalries.

The fact he took to wearing all black didn’t exactly help lessen his image as snowboarding’s bad guy. Like Anakin Skywalker, he was the ultimate child prodigy turned masked villain – more machine than man, you might say. And yet, and yet… When Whitelines caught up with him at this year’s Laax Open, we found a way more self-aware and relaxed version of Shaun White. He even did a sick style run that wasn’t a victory lap. So maybe, to go full Return of the Jedi, there is still good in him?

“In fact you could make the case that the best all-round snowboarders in history tend to cut their teeth on vert”

Whatever your take on the latest re-appearance by The Artist Formerly Known As The Flying Tomato, there’s no denying it makes for must-watch TV. At the Olympics this week, we’re essentially faced with a mouthwatering winner-takes-all contest between two young upstarts (Yuto Totsuka and Kaishu Hirano), the perennial bridesmaid (Ayumu), and two old dogs enjoying one last dance, Netflix style. As plotlines go, it’s the best we’re gonna get.

And hey, if all that hasn’t convinced you that halfpipe is still king, consider this: today’s pipe jocks are tomorrow’s powder legends. In fact you could make the case that the best all-round snowboarders in history tend to cut their teeth on vert: Terje Haakonsen, Kazu Kokubo, Ben Ferguson, Danny Davis, Arthur Longo… the list goes on. Bottom line: there’s no better tutor in the art of edge control than 22 feet of pure ice.

So sure, 99.9% of snowboarders can’t even make it out the lip. And for three out of every four years, if we’re honest, most of us don’t really give a shit. But when the lights go up on that frozen stage in Beijing, I for one will be tuning in.

And you know what, I’m willing to bet that so will you.

* I’m not even going to get into Big Air, except to say that Ed Leigh recently summed it up thus: “History will remember 2021 as the exact point when the last shreds of style and flair were jettisoned.”

** Recap: At the end of the 2007/08 season, with Kevin Pearce leading the TTR tour standings, Shaun entered a little-known contest called the Snickers Classic & Popcorn Wallride. His victory there (against a mediocre field) gave him the handful of points he needed to steal KP’s crown.