VAIL — Shaun White isn’t done.
After more than two decades under the spotlight as snowboarding’s wunderkind turned superstar, the 30-year-old athlete is regularly the oldest competitor in the pipe. But he isn’t about to cede his crown. In fact, the world’s most celebrated snowboarder is looking to extend his halfpipe ascendancy through 2022. At least.
“I’ve got a pretty busy next six years,” he said after winning his seventh halfpipe title at the 35th annual Burton U.S. Open at Vail’s Golden Peak.
White is vying to make the U.S. Snowboarding halfpipe team for the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. Then he’s got “a real heavy decision” about training for skateboarding’s Olympic debut in the 2020 Summer Games in Japan. And a return to the halfpipe for the 2022 show in Beijing is on the table, he said.
“I love China,” said White, who has staged his annual Air + Style big-air festivals in Beijing since 2011. “I have so much history there. I’d love to go back and compete. For me, I’m looking that far ahead.”
For a while this season, it looked like White’s reign was ebbing. The did not go well, with him posting his worst showing since he debuted at the winter circus in 2000. His qualifying run earned him gold at a weather-pinched Grand Prix contest at Mammoth Mountain in early February. He returned to form at the Olympic test event at South Korea’s Bokwang Phoenix Park last month, but he had to settle for silver after Australian Scotty James, who , took control on his final run down the pipe.
Under balmy, bluebird conditions on Saturday, White stomped his first-ever double-cork 1440, a dizzying trick he has been practicing for more than four years but was unable to land cleanly in competition until last weekend. He beat second-place James by nearly 10 points, setting the pace for the grueling race to South Korea, which begins anew next fall at Breckenridge’s Dew Tour.
After a disappointing performance in the Sochi Winter Olympics, where White initially planned to compete in the Olympic debut of slopestyle as well as halfpipe but ended up dropping from slope and missing the pipe podium, the Californian has renewed his focus on pipe riding.
The switch from slopestyle jumps to halfpipe and back again was too much, he said.
“I’m being nicer and kinder to myself in my old age,” he said. “Honestly, itap what has felt right: stick to halfpipe and really focus on that.”
James, who has emerged as White’s halfpipe rival this season, teased White with the nickname “Old Rusty Buckets.” But then the 22-year-old Aussie said he was inspired by White’s performances at an age when most other pro riders have walked away from the field of rubber-boned teens spinning 20-plus feet above icy halfpipe decks.
“I really like how Shaun is still going because, like you said, people put an end date on an athlete in general. He is defying the odds and itap really cool to see and I want to be in that same position when I’m turning my dirty 30s,” James said.
BURTON U.S. OPEN 2017 RESULTS
Women’s Halfpipe
1. Chloe Kim (USA), 87.12
2. Elena Hight (USA), 80.12
3. Maddie Mastro (USA), 78.25
Women’s Slopestyle
1. Anna Gasser (AUT), 83.85
2. Jamie Anderson (USA), 81.55
3. Spencer O’Brien (CAN), 75.65
Mens Halfpipe
1. Shaun White (USA), 92.74
2. Scotty James (AUS), 82.87
3. Chase Josey (USA), 79.87
Mens Slopestyle
1. Mark McMorris (CAN), 86.95
2. Michael Ciccarelli (CAN), 82.65
3. Sven Thorgren (SWE), 81.85