BEIJING, China — By Shaun White's own accounting, he wanted to symbolically wrap up his Olympic career where it started: Not in Beijing, but in Italy.
That's where the Winter Olympics will return in four years, in the Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo region. It would have been a tidy way to close his Olympic career, 20 years after it began at the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics.
But White told ESPN that in preparing for Beijing he realized he's reached his limits and instead wanted to make the most of 2022.
"I got pretty excited about the idea of finishing my Olympic career where I started it. But through this process, I realized I don't think I can do another four years, mentally or physically. This is going to be my last go," he said.
That leaves White on the verge of his last Olympic event tonight, the men's snowboard halfpipe final.
Shaun White Olympics basics
- Event: Men's snowboarding halfpipe final, tonight, Feb. 10; first run begins at 8:30 p.m. ET (9:30 a.m. Friday morning in Beijing), third and final run begins at 9:25 p.m. ET (10:25 a.m. Friday morning in Beijing).
- Where he stands: White qualified for the final with the fourth-highest score, but the qualifying scores are thrown out for the final, where the best score of three runs will decide who wins gold.
- How to watch: It will air in primetime on 11Alive and can be streamed via NBC Olympics here.
Winning the event would give him four golds in five tries, an unprecedented achievement in the halfpipe event since it was introduced at the Olympics in 1998.
Back when he won his first in 2006, it started out far from a guarantee.
White started out with a score of 37.7 on his first run - a disappointing result which would not have been strong enough to get him into the final.
But he brushed himself off for a second qualifying run that was the best in the field, and then he did even better in his first run of the final, ultimately garnering a score of 46.8 out of a perfect 50 that gave him gold by a wide margin.
Here's a look at that run:
The Team USA snowboarding coach at the time, Bud Keene, said White was a "machine" and attributed the qualifying stumble to a "fluke."
“He certainly would not be the first guy in the Olympics to choke, but he’s not a choker. He’s a winner," Keene said.
Those proved to be prescient words - he went on two win two more Olympic golds, and on Thursday night there are high hopes he'll cap his amazing Olympic career with a fifth in Beijing.
