On Wednesday Shaun White announced that he would not compete in the slopestyle competition in Sochi. This did come as a surprise despite White’s injured wrist that he suffered on a training run.
White gave a statement to NBC’s Today Show which read, “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.”
The loss of White in the event gives the US just three competitors in the field (Chas Guldemond, Sage Kostenburg, and Ryan Stassel) and takes away their most likely medalist.
The reasons for White’s withdrawal mostly center around the dangerous course that the athletes have been complaining about in Sochi. Snowboarding is never totally safe but this course apparently has some larger jumps and an added level of danger that has already knocked a few athletes out with injuries and now has forced one of snowboarding’s stars to pass as well. If White was a 21-year old snowboarder who wasn’t known all around the world he might have handled this differently. But he’s not. White is a 27-year old snowboarding icon who has two Olympic gold medals and 12 X-Games gold medals (including five in slopestyle). He doesn’t need to prove himself or use this stage to get attention through a great run. He’s more focused on trying to grab a third gold in halfpipe later in Sochi and wants to make sure he’s healthy for that instead of potentially missing out if he got injured in slopestyle.
While it’s disappointing we won’t see him in the slopestyle event in Sochi I think it’s easy to respect and understand his decision.
