Shaun White

Background

Shaun Roger White was the youngest child of parents Roger and Cathy White. He has two older siblings, a sister and a brother. As an infant, White suffered from a complex cardiac condition and underwent two operations before his first birthday. Although the procedures jeopardized his chances of living a long and healthy life, White hasn’t experienced complications as an adult. Both of his parents were sports enthusiasts in their youth. During the winter, he and his siblings frequently skied on the neighboring mountains. The children were equally enthusiastic about skating and showed a natural affinity for it. White was the most aggressive skier of his siblings, prompting his mom, worried about his safety, to steer him in the direction of snowboarding.

In 2002, White participated in his first Winter X Games, where he consistently excelled. By 2013, he had won 13 gold medals, three silver medals, and two bronze ones in the snowboard slopestyle competition. He joined the halfpipe event at the Winter Olympics for the first time in 2006. However, White’s lackluster performance nearly forced him out of the tournament, but he quickly recovered to take the gold. In 2008, Shaun participated in the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships’ halfpipe competition and won. Later that year, his national fame prompted a video game developer to release a game based on him. In November 2008, “Shaun White Snowboarding” was published and ranked as the 20th best-selling game of the year.

In 2012, White astounded everyone at the Winter X Games with a perfect score in the men’s snowboard superpipe competition. To his disappointment, he placed fourth in the halfpipe competition at the 2014 Winter Olympics but had a successful comeback in the 2018 Winter Olympics, where he won the gold in the halfpipe competition.