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SNOWMASS VILLAGE 鈥� Shaun White stood atop the halfpipe, wondering what to do. Should he play it safe for his final of three laps down the pipe by spinning his trademark run and hopefully claim a podium that would secure his spot on his fourth Olympic team?

No way.

A PERFECT 馃挴!! qualifies for his FOURTH as only he can.

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)

Throwing the most aggressive and flawless run of his life in what became the most competitive snowboarding halfpipe contest in history, the 31-year-old earned a perfect score of 100 points and scored his fourth ticket to the Olympics.

鈥淚 was almost in tears man. I shed a couple,鈥� he said after posing for dozens of photos with jubilant fans at the base of the pipe where he made history. 鈥淚 dug super deep for that. People ask me what my greatest accomplishment is in this sport or my biggest win and, honestly, it抖阴ap being in the top level of this sport for this long while it抖阴ap ever-changing.鈥�

In a finals for the ages, snowboarding鈥檚 best put on a show that none will soon forget.

鈥淭here has never been a contest at this level,鈥� said Aspen Skiing Co. event organizer and longtime snowboarding coach Tyler Lindsay.

. says he is now "on the right course" for the following his perfect 100 score at .

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics)

It started with Eagle鈥檚 Jake Pates, who led for the first two runs of the best-of-three contest. For his third run, he spun one of the best runs of his life, earning him a seemingly insurmountable score of 94 points. Japan鈥檚 Yuto Totsucka responded with one of the most technical runs ever seen in the halfpipe, scoring 94.50 and bumping Pates to second. Australian Olympian Scotty James bumped Pates down to third with his best run ever, which included his first-ever switch backside double-cork 1260, a sort of Holy Grail of snowboarding tricks.

With Pates sitting on the hot seat as his family and friends raged in celebration, White took his time. He was the top qualifier and the last to go. The gatekeeper told him to go. Twice. He looked over at his coach, J.J Thomas, the Golden snowboarder who took bronze in the Olympic halfpipe in 2002. (It was Thomas who bumped a then-15-year-old White from the Olympic team in 2002.)

鈥淗e said, ‘You make the call,’ 鈥� White said.

The judges 鈥� the same panel who will be judging in South Korea 鈥� agreed with White鈥檚 decision to throw the YOLO flip, a switch frontside double-cork 1440 on his first hit, which he followed with a perfectly executed pair of double-cork 1260s, one of which he retooled the day before.

鈥淚 got this second wind in the middle of the run and I was like, 鈥業鈥檓 finishing this and I鈥檓 going 12-12,’ 鈥� he said.

White’s historic performance pushed Pates off the podium, but the 19-year-old Eagle phenom’s fourth-place finish atop a win last month at the Breckenridge Dew Tour punched his ticket to PyeongChang, where he will join Silverthorne slopestyle snowboarders Red Gerard and Chris Corning on U.S. Snowboarding’s Olympic squad. Oregon’s Ben Ferguson, who finished fifth in the pipe on Saturday, also qualified for PyeongChang.

White’s win — the second perfect score in his career — comes only a few months after a crash that hospitalized White with a badly bruised hip and liver and another brutal slam a month later that required 62 stitches in his face.

鈥淚t抖阴ap just so nice to be rewarded for ripping my face open and coming back and doing that trick and getting the score,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t抖阴ap been such a journey.鈥�