Shaun White

By: Veronica S

Shaun White, the face of snowboarding, was supposed to leave Sochi with two more gold medals. But things didn’t go exactly how his team, fans, and him-self wanted it to.

Shaun White wanted to be the first Olympic champion of the inaugural snowboarding slopestyle event. He wanted to make Olympic history by winning his third straight halfpipe gold medal.

A bad ankle injury last August started his World Cup season kind of rough. He had to wait until the last minute to qualify for the Olympics slopestyle team.

Once in Sochi, White was so uncomfortable with his health and the condition of the slopestyle course that he withdrew himself from that event. White just wanted to put all of his focus on the halfpipe. The 2014 Winter Olympics was supposed to be the games that cemented White’s legacy.

There are people saying this might be the end of Shaun White the snowboarder.

White is known as the “face” of snowboarding. Back in the day at the Vancouver Olympics White was so dominant in his first run that his second run seemed like it was just an exhibition. No one doubted that the gold was his.

People described him as wild-haired and energetic. But this year, 2014, the now clean-cut and business like Shaun White was shaky from the beginning. He crashed on his first run and his final run was full of cool and fancy tricks but his landings were shaky.

Even though he is the most decorated X games athlete of all time and the most dominant snowboarder of his era, this could be it for Shaun White.