While Shaun White has made his mark in the snowboard halfpipe, he’s also a professional skateboard and winner of two X-Games gold medals on four wheels. However, after exploring the possibility of representing the United States at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics skateboard event this summer, the Associated Press is reporting that White has officially decided that he will stick to what he does best in hopes of making the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing.
White’s reasoning is sound: while his skateboarding skills lie mainly in the “vert” category — essentially the same thing as snowboard’s halfpipe competition — the inaugural skateboarding event at this summer’s games is “park,” which weaves in halfpipes with other skateboarding staples, like stairs and rails.
That’s enough out of White’s comfort zone that he would have to train around the clock between now and the Olympics in order to have hopes of securing a medal, and that time would cut into his preparation for the Winter Olympics:
The decision became less about going for skate and more about, am I willing to walk away from snow? It just was going in that direction, and I didn’t feel comfortable with it and I can’t wholeheartedly choose this path with what I’ve got going on snow.
White most recently placed 13th at the World Skate Park Skateboarding World Championship in São Paulo, Brazil. While he’s not a lock for the U.S. team in China in 2022, he weighed his options and felt that dropping the dream of skateboarding in Tokyo this summer was worth it for a chance to participate in one last Winter Olympics, where he has three gold medals, including in the halfpipe event at the 2018 PyeongChang games.
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Read the full story at the Associated Press
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