Shaun White Absent From Slopestyle At Sochi Due To Safety Concerns

Flamboyant American snowboarder, Shaun White, will be absent from slopestyle competition at Sochi due to safety concerns.

If slopestyle sounds unfamiliar to you it is because it is a new event at the Sochi Winter Games and unfortunately it is garnering more coverage because of White’s withdrawal.

A day before the debut of the newest Olympic event at these Winter Games, Shaun White decided to step aside citing “the potential risk of injury” on a course that has drawn concerns about its safety.

Clearly disappointed on having to make the choice, the 27-year-old said in a statement:

“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA. The difficult decision to forgo slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of.”

White’s decision comes after Norway’s Torstein Horgmo — a medal contender — fell off a rail feature and broke his collarbone and Finland’s Marika Enne suffered a concussion after a crash on the course on Tuesday.

The American also suffered a minor injury when he jammed his wrist after falling during a practice session but said Wednesday, before announcing his withdrawal Shaun White said:

“I think it was blown out of proportion a little bit…. I definitely jammed it, but… in snowboarding, you get bumps and bruises all the time.”

White didn’t give any indication he would withdraw from the event and explained his concerns about the course conditions on Wednesday:

“Definitely concerns about the course. It’s been interesting to see how it’s developed and changed over the past few days, and I guess the big question is if it will continue to change because every day they have the riders’ meeting and they give feedback. Sometimes there’s changes and sometimes there’s not.”

At that point a US Olympic official interrupted Shaun White and asked him to focus on the halfpipe competition saying, “There will be a time and place to speak about the other stuff,” the official said.

But there wouldn’t be a chance to do so, as the US team announced that they would not replace Shaun White who, in effect, forfeits his chance of becoming the first Winter Olympic athlete with at least four events, to win every event he’s entered.

The decision quickly garnered reactions from rivals on Twitter. Canadian sensation, 21-year-old Sebastien Toutant — medal favorite in the slopestyle — and Maxence Parrot took a shot at White.

Toutant reportedly tweeted: “Mr. White… It’s easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can’t win…”

And here is a screenshot at Parrot’s tweet:

It appears the young guns were poking fun at the two-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White and they quickly deleted both tweets, but not before someone faster than them was able to record the comments. The American will surely let his skills answer their harmless tweets when he takes on the competition in the halfpipe at Sochi.