This is where I live. This will be Shaun White’s fifth Olympic team. He came to Mammoth Mountain to make sure. Snowboard star Shaun White’s Olympic status is still uncertain. G-Star had to leave because his ankle was hurting and there was still a lot of work to be done.
White had a good run in qualifying for the U.S. Grand Prix on Saturday night, but he hurt his ankle in the process, so he didn’t race in the finals. Afterward, some of the 2022 U.S. Olympic snowboard star Shaun White’s Olympic status is still uncertain. and freestyle teams were announced, but not the 35-year-old who has changed the sport.
Jankowski, the U.S. ski and snowboard head coach, said White went back to the top of the halfpipe for finals, but he couldn’t get warmed up enough to do well enough to be a big star for more than two decades. At this level, at night, in the icy white, it’s risky, so he took a break. White has had a lot of setbacks since he came back to the sport after a three-year break. He won the World Cup in Korea in 2018 with a dramatic last-run victory.
He finished eighth and seventh in two separate races last month. This week, he said that he had COVID-19 in late December, and that his symptoms were like a bad cold.
It was this week when White came to California as the third-ranked American in a sport that has become a lot more popular in Japan. He talked about how important it was to build some momentum before going to China. Now he’s in fourth place behind a group led by Taylor Gold, but White is still likely to be in good shape if he’s healthy. This does not have to happen until January 21.
There is only one thing White wants to do, Jankowski said: train hard and keep getting better. “He’s hoping that the place where he is now will stay where it is and that he will get the nomination for the team.”
White’s future is still up in the air, but a few of his friends who have won multiple Olympic gold medals at home have already booked their flights to Beijing. In the freestyle halfpipe, David Wise won two gold medals and finished second to Nico Porteous of New Zealand in his first run in the finals. He did this to make sure that he could try to make it a three-peat, which he had feared would not happen because of a string of poor finishes.
With the support of his parents, wife, and two kids, as well as friends who made the three-hour trip from Reno, Nevada, Wise was able to get out and run when he needed it most.
Wise: “The last two times, I was the first person to lock in my spot.” It wasn’t like that this time. At the last minute, I locked it in. The fight, on the other hand, just gives me a little more ammunition for Beijing. Beside Wise, Alex Ferreira, who won silver in Korea four years ago, will also be there. The US went one-two as a team there. When Aaron Blunck comes back to the halfpipe at the Olympics, this will be his third time there.
Jamie Anderson, a two-time Olympic gold medal winner in women’s snowboard slopestyle, will get a chance to make it three in a row. Slopestyle finalist Zoi Sadowski Synnott of New Zealand came out on top on Saturday. Anderson, who won a silver medal in big air in Korea in 2018, will head to China with some momentum after beating Yoon.
It’s hot and stressful to return as a two-time champion, but “I also feel grateful for the opportunity to represent our country and do what I love, as well as hopefully inspire young people all over the world to follow their dreams.”
In Pyeongchang, Hailey Langland did both slopestyle and big air. She’ll be back at the Olympics for a second time.
Chloe Kim, the reigning halfpipe champion, leads the women’s team snowboard halfpipe snowboard team. The 21-year-old Kim won gold as a teenager in Korea, and like White a decade ago, she has become the standard-bearer for her sport. She has won five straight events before the Olympics in Beijing, which start next month.
Kim will go to China with Maddie Mastro, the last athlete to beat Kim, even tho she broke her ankle when she fell hard at a Dew Tour event last month.
After he got a spot at the Olympics, Red Gerard will be able to defend his gold medal in snowboarding slopestyle. The three of them will be on the slope course with him.
Hanna Faulhaber, a 17-year-old newcomer, will lead the women’s freestyle halfpipe team. Faulhaber came in second to Eileen Gu, an 18-year-old born in San Francisco who will compete for China, where her mother is from, at the Olympics. It will be Brita Sigourney’s last Olympics. She won bronze in 2018, and she wants to add to her medal haul.
