{"id":58814,"date":"2018-02-14T07:22:50","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T07:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=58814"},"modified":"2018-02-14T07:22:50","modified_gmt":"2018-02-14T07:22:50","slug":"shaun-white-is-americas-most-clutch-performer-in-winter-games-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/shaun-white-is-americas-most-clutch-performer-in-winter-games-history.html","title":{"rendered":"Shaun White is America’s most clutch performer in Winter Games history"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaun White is America’s most clutch performer in Winter Games history<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

The final trick safely landed, the gold medal almost assuredly around his neck, Shaun White came off the halfpipe at Phoenix Snow Park and raised his arms, screaming with the kind of emotion you\u2019ve rarely seen during his lifetime as a superstar athlete and cultural icon.<\/span><\/p>\n

What White did here Wednesday went further than those familiar labels; beyond his talent, his presence and his resume, none of which were ever in question. What he did, nailing his awe-inspiring final run to win this event for the third time in four Olympics, didn\u2019t merely re-affirm his standing as the greatest snowboarder who\u2019s ever lived. Instead, it put him in the conversation as the author of America\u2019s most clutch Winter Games performance of all-time.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think personally,\u201d his coach, JJ Thomas said, \u201cit\u2019s the best halfpipe run I\u2019ve ever seen in the history of the sport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

But even that\u2019s not big enough for what we witnessed White pull off in the finals. After two runs, his margin for error was gone. And with Japan\u2019s Ayumu Hirano having already posted a score of 95.25 out of 100 on his second run after landing back-to-back 1440s \u2013 four full rotations in the air \u2013 the bar White had to reach was so high.<\/span><\/p>\n

Not only did the moment demand near perfect execution, but in having to match those consecutive 1440s, White would have to pull off something he\u2019d never done before \u2013 not in competition, not even in practice.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to wait around and watch the competition, so we kept spinning laps around the mountain, taking trips on the chair lift, anything to distract from this imminent pressure cooker situation,\u201d White said.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is perhaps the most remarkable aspect of this sport, which has essentially grown up around, and thanks to, the now 31-year old White. As young as it is, there are still barriers to break and thresholds that progressively get crossed. As successful as White has been, nobody had done consecutive 1440s until Hirano did it at the Winter X Games last month. And now here was White, as he stood at the top of the halfpipe, knowing that for all he\u2019s accomplished he would still have to pull off something greater than he\u2019s ever accomplished before.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFrankly, it\u2019s dangerous,\u201d said Thomas, who won the bronze medal at the second-ever Olympic halfpipe competition in 2002. \u201cThe moves are so dangerous now, it\u2019s not like you can practice them every day like you used to. These moves are different. The consequences are so high. We had to wait until it was game time.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

When White tried the consecutive 1440s on his second run, he landed them, but not as cleanly as Hirano before stumbling as he tried to complete his double McTwist 1260. He knew, in that moment, that he had it in him to do it again \u2013 and to finish the run next time. But this wasn\u2019t any other competition. This was the Olympics, and even as a two-time champion, every bit of that pressure and history seemed to be staring back at him.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s different for Shaun,\u201d Thomas said. \u201cHis Olympic experience, I\u2019ve learned, is so much different from what mine was just because of who he is and what he\u2019s accomplished. He\u2019s a boss to make this happen, but he is stressed. He has the weight of the world on his shoulders up there.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

As the crowd roared from the bottom of the hill, White began to pump his fists. It was, in many ways, the same nervous sensation he felt four years ago in Sochi when he needed one great run to beat Iouri Podladtchikov but, for whatever reason, couldn\u2019t make it happen and finished fourth.<\/span><\/p>\n

But this time, as he readied himself to drop in, he let it all go and nailed those 1440s with two 1260s on top of it. Moments later, he found himself at the bottom celebrating a score of 97.75 that, when it was posted, caused him to flip his snowboard, drop to his knees and immediately have to wipe away tears.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI looked down at the pipe and kind of said to myself, you know you\u2019ve got this,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s what you\u2019ve done your whole life and career, and savor this moment because you might just win the Olympics.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c(In Sochi), I was defeated in my mind before I dropped in, and I\u2019m so thankful I got to stand there again and know who I am and know what I can do and do that run to win it. It\u2019s rare to get these opportunities to redeem yourself in life and in your career, and I took advantage of that.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to put White\u2019s final run in the context of greatest American Olympic moments without succumbing a little bit to recency bias, and perhaps it\u2019s unfair to compare him with any other athlete or sport. But in that moment, given what he needed to do \u2013 and how he actually pulled it off \u2013 you simply won\u2019t find very many performers who have risen to the occasion as inspirationally.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a psycho,\u201d said American Ben Ferguson, who finished fourth. \u201cHe is really, really, really good, and he can turn it on when he has to. And he lands it when it means something.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Or when it means everything.<\/span><\/p>\n

Source:- https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/winter-olympics-2018\/2018\/02\/14\/shaun-white-americas-most-clutch-performer-winter-games-history\/336076002\/<\/span><\/p>\n

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