Participation is the Prize

“I’m just so happy to be going [to the games],” he said, explaining that his place on the US Team hadn’t been secure until that evening. “I’m so happy to hit the podium, and to be a part of all this. What a wonderful ending to my last competition at Laax”. Regardless of what happens in Beijing, White confirmed he’ll be retiring from competition for good after the games. But perhaps more remarkably, given his famously competitive nature, he also said he didn’t really mind what happens in Beijing. “At this point in my career, I’ve been to the Olympics and won, and I’ve been to the Olympics and lost,” he said. “So I’m really open for anything. It’s like: ‘Hey, it’s my last go. Let’s have fun, let’s enjoy it’.” 

Has snowboarding’s most ferociously competitive rider really lost his fire? Well, not entirely. “I’m a competitor, so this is like the building blocks – I’m hoping to peak just when I get to the games,” he said. But there’s no doubt his mindset has shifted somewhat. “At this point in my life – how do I describe it? – what got me here won’t get me the rest of the way. The feeling of ‘if I don’t win the Olympics it’s all over, and my life is over,’ that’s how I used to think.” He laughs. “At times on this journey, I’ve tried to get into that mental headspace, and it doesn’t work for me. I get discouraged, I get burnt out and I’m over it.”

“I’m really open for anything. It’s like: ‘Hey, it’s my last go. Let’s have fun, let’s enjoy it’.”

Learning to relinquish that win-at-all-costs attitude has helped carry White through what, by all accounts, was a difficult qualification campaign – blighted by bad luck, broken bindings, and then a bout of Covid. “It’s given me strength for this whole process,” he said. But his new approach to competition will also doubtless serve him well if things don’t go his way in Beijing.

Because make no mistake, White has a mountain to climb if he wants to top the podium again. His first run in Laax saw him string together back-to-back 1260s. Hirano’s involved back-to-back 14s – a combo that White has only landed once, and that was in Pyeongchang, four years ago.

A Love – Hate Relationship

Publicly, White has always accepted that a certain amount of hate comes with the territory. “Because I’ve been ‘the name’ in the sport, you get a lot of love and you get a lot of hate,” is how he puts it. If anything, he says, the haters only used to spur him on. “I was like ‘OK, hate me. I want it. Give me that attitude cos it’s gonna motivate me.’” As he nears retirement age, however, his attitude seems to be mellowing.

“I’m 35, and in my first games, I was 19,” he says. “I almost got there when I was 15, and I’m just so proud to be riding at a high level, after this many years. What a career, what a run. I’m glad to hand the torch to the next generation.”

“If anything, he says, the haters only used to spur him on”

This shift is understandable. Of course Shaun White in his mid-30s is a different person to Shaun White the long-haired teenager. What’s more interesting is that just as White’s approach seems to be mellowing, many snowboarders’ take on him seems to be changing too. Certainly, among the core crowd who stayed up the hill to watch the halfpipe finals in Laax – one of the largest I’d ever seen at a halfpipe contest – we heard nothing but respect, bordering on affection. It wasn’t just respect for his achievements either, which was always there, but for the man himself.

It’s something White felt too, from the top of the halfpipe. “I’m happy you say that about the crowd,” he says. “I remember thinking there’d be a lot of standoff sort of attitude at the pipe, cos that’s what it used to be. But now it’s a weird but beautiful thing, where some of the competitors are like, ‘I played your video game,’ or ‘could you sign my shirt?’.” After years of questioning his motives, his lifestyle, and his core credentials, are snowboarders finally learning to love Shaun White? That’s certainly how it felt in Laax. 

An Emotional Farewell

For his own part White has become increasingly nostalgic as his retirement draws closer. “Everything’s got this last dance glow to it,” he says. “Final round, you know?” Since qualifying, his Instagram feed has turned into a throwback, with posts showing runs from each of his Olympic appearances so far. All are impressive – even the fluffed run in 2014 that saw him finish outside the medals. But the one that stands out for me – and shows just how much has changed – is the video of his final run from Vancouver 2010.

This was White in his imperial pomp – he’d just won his second Olympic medal with a run to spare – but it was also White at his most-reviled. He was fresh off the back of pulling a sly one on his rival Kevin Pearce, entering an extra contest so that Pearce couldn’t win the 2008 TTR league outright. Fiercely competitive to a fault, he obviously felt he had something to prove. This second run should’ve been a victory lap, but as he puts it in his Instagram post, instead of taking it easy, he decided that to “cement myself in the sport’s history” he wouldn’t hold “anything back”. He hadn’t even needed his latest trick, the Tomahawk, to win the gold, but now he decided to throw it down anyway – as if to rub his rivals’ noses in it.

“White has become increasingly nostalgic as his retirement draws closer”

I found myself thinking of that run as I watched his second lap in Switzerland. OK, so the Laax Open isn’t the Olympics, but once again White had achieved what he’d come to do with a run to spare. This time however, instead of a terminator-style showcase of technicality, he threw a series of massive, stylish straight airs, with his signature frontside five, aka ‘the skyhook’, as his only spin. What was behind that decision? “Well, I had locked up my position, so in the spirit of snowboarding, I was just like ‘I’m gonna go big,’” he says. “The spirit of snowboarding” isn’t something you’d always have associated with Shaun Roger White, and yet here he was, paying tribute.

As he heads into his final games, the world’s most famous rider is still, probably, “bigger than snowboarding”, and will continue to be so, whatever happens in Beijing. It’s nice to know though, that he’s also not above sending it for snowboarders – or the simple pleasures of “going big”.