After the much talked about appearance of American snowboarder Shaun White in the halfpipe finals at the Sochi Olympics, the two-time gold medalist failed to win a medal, of any color.
White’s participation in these Winter Games had been surrounded by controversy when he unexpectedly withdrew from the slopestyle event — making its debut at Sochi — to focus on his specialty, the halpipe.
But in a shocking development, the two-time Olympic gold medalist wasn’t able to reach the podium and become the most decorated male Olympian in his sport.
The Flying Tomato as Shaun White was dubbed in 2006 at the Turin games, for his long red hair, is 27-years-old at Sochi and after a first run in the qualifiers that got him a 95.75 and put him at the top of the pack, he wasn’t able to bank on his lead.
White’s goal was to win two gold medals for the United States in Russia, but with no chance in the slopestye and only the halfpipe to go he was under a lot of pressure.
Shaun White finished fourth in the men’s halfpipe competition Tuesday night at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park.
Iouri Podladtchikov, the snowboarder from Switzerland received a score of 94.75 on his second run and took the gold. Ayumu Hirano and Taku Hiraoka from Japan won the silver and bronze.
Shaun White fell twice in the first round of the final run and couldn’t match the tricks the top snowboarders showed for the judges. He also had two bobbles that kept him out of contention for the first time in his Olympic career.
He received a score of 35.00 in the first round, which put him in 11th place out of 12 riders, a dismal showing for the legendary snowboarder.
Shaun White was clearly shocked at his result when he finished his run.
Multiple exposure photo of @shaun_white on #HalfPipe in #Sochi via @GettyImages : http://t.co/mHKgMajqTZ pic.twitter.com/hngsjqJP3g
— NBC News Pictures (@NBCNewsPictures) February 11, 2014
USA’s Shaun White rubs his head after finishing 4th in the Men’s Halfpipe. #Sochi2014 #snowboarding pic.twitter.com/SC46d0Cfj8
— Doug Mills (@dougmillsnyt) February 11, 2014
Crazy photo of Shaun White’s board when he lands hard on the lip http://t.co/sZNiQj4B1p (Reuters/ Mike Blake) pic.twitter.com/E3ONkeI4ux
— Joseph Weisenthal (@TheStalwart) February 11, 2014
IPod celebrates his gold with Shaun White. #Sochi2014 #SochiSMG via @USATsportsImage pic.twitter.com/Zkm1wOTerh
— Roxanna Scott (@roxscott) February 11, 2014
And so, Shaun White , the most legendary American snowboarder in history, leaves the Sochi Olympics without a single medal, an outcome that not many could have predicted at the start of competition.
[Image Via Twitter}
