Bardonecchia, Italy – Competitive athletes tell themselves all sorts of things to gain a mental edge. “Twenty-six miles is not that far to run,” or, “The Alps are not so steep.” But perhaps the biggest myth of them all is: “The Olympics is just another snowboard competition.”
It’s the kind of talk the world’s best halfpipe rider utters before going into the world’s biggest halfpipe contest, one he can’t imagine losing after working so hard to get here. But even though Shaun White understands that today’s Olympic halfpipe competition won’t make or break his already sterling snowboarding career, deep down, like every other rider at these Olympics, he craves the gold medal.
“Most people, if you were sitting next to them on an airplane and you said, ‘I won the X Games,’ they would maybe know what was up,” said White, a six-time Winter X Games gold medalist at age 19. “But there is something that happens to people when you say ‘Olympics.’ There is just so much pride in that.”
The hype surrounding the men’s Olympic halfpipe competition is very real indeed. The contest has not been around as long as prestigious snowboard contests like the U.S. Open, or even the X Games, but in the end, it is snowboarding’s biggest event conducted on the largest international stage the American-made sport has ever known. And after a cutthroat qualifying process whittled the field down to four Americans – White (of Carlsbad, Calif.), Danny Kass (Hamburg, N.J.), Mason Aguirre (Duluth, Minn.) and Andy Finch (Fresno, Calif.) – that stage has been set with what U.S. Snowboarding team coaches consider the strongest group of riders ever assembled.
It’s a significant statement, considering that the last group of American riders, including Kass, Ross Powers of Vermont and JJ Thomas of Golden, pulled off the first American medals sweep in any Olympic sport since the 1956 Cortina Games when they dropped into the halfpipe at Salt Lake City 2002. Four years later, expectations are high.
“It’s a little pressure, but I’m the only guy coming back from the sweep this year, so I guess the pressure to repeat that isn’t that much,” said Kass, 23, the reigning silver medalist.
Based on events like last month’s Winter X Games (where White and Aguirre finished first and second, respectively), the 2005 U.S. Open (won by Kass), American dominance in the halfpipe is evident. But challenges come from around the world, most notably Finland, whose Antti Autti became the first non-American to win the X Games gold medal in 2005, shortly after claiming the FIS world championship titles in halfpipe and big air. Teammate Risto Mattila is also a contender, while Kazuhiro Kokubo, 17, could threaten for Japan’s first Olympic medal in snowboarding.
But even his competitors agree that the contest is White’s to win or lose. The kid who grew up with the nickname “Future Boy” has won everything else in the history of the sport and has yet to lose in six major halfpipe contests this season.
Staff writer Scott Willoughby can be reached at 303-820-1993 or swilloughby@denverpost.com.
