Shaun White

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Olympic medalist
Center
Shaun White
Medal record
Men's Snowboarding
Gold 2006 Turin Men's Halfpipe
X Games Medal Record
Men's Snowboarding
Silver 2002 Slopestyle
Gold 2003 Slopestyle
Gold 2004 Slopestyle
Gold 2005 Slopestyle
Gold 2006 Slopestyle
Silver 2002 Half-pipe
Gold 2003 Half-pipe
Gold 2006 Half-pipe
Men's Skateboarding
Silver 2005 Vert

Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986 in San Diego, California) is an American professional snowboarder and skateboarder based in Carlsbad, California. White has accumulated an impressive competition record in both sports, and has appeared in a number of media programs and video games. He has been a notable competitor in the extreme-sports community since he was about twelve years old.

White stands 5' 8.5" (1.73 m) tall. He rides regular stance, twelve and negative three degrees on his snowboard. He is known for his shock of red hair, for which he has become known as "The Flying Tomato," or Il Pomodoro Volante in Italy where he is also popular. But according to Rolling Stone, "he used to embrace it, even wearing headbands with a flying-tomato logo, but he has grown tired of it."[1]

Contents

[edit] Skateboarding career

Shaun White has been working with Tony Hawk since an early age and derives his inspiration from him and many other vert skaters. Hawk first met with Shaun at the age of nine while snowboarding.

Shaun went pro in 2003 at the age of 16, and won his first pro contest in 2005 at the Panasonic Open in Louisville, KY (the 1st stop of the Dew Action Sports Tour). He also won a silver medal for the men's vert in the 2005 summer x games.

At the 2005 and 2006 X Games, Shaun attempted the 1080 (3 full rotations, half a rotation more than a 900). He is the only skater to attempt the trick in competition, but has yet to land it.

He remains the only skater to land the bodyvarial frontside 540.

[edit] Early life

White was born with a congenital heart defect known as tetralogy of Fallot,[2] and had two cardiac surgeries before the age of 5. White's older brother, Jesse, got into skateboarding at the nearby Encinitas YMCA, which sported a vert ramp. Eager to follow, Shaun also learned to skateboard.[3]

White first began snowboarding at the age of 6. He went to June Mountain in California with his family, and his older brother was trying his hand at snowboarding. Again, Shaun soon followed, but was told that he was too young to take snowboarding lessons. Instead, his father learned and then taught White.[2] In order to slow White down, his mother told him that he could only board backwards, or switch. This actually furthered his career by forcing him to be skilled at both boarding methods.


[edit] Snowboarding career

White waiting for his results following his first run at the 2006 Winter Olympics.
Enlarge
White waiting for his results following his first run at the 2006 Winter Olympics.

White soon gained sponsorship from Burton after his mother phoned them to see if they had a board small enough for her 6-year-old son. Today, his sponsors include Burton, as well as Oakley, T-mobile, R.E.D., Volcom, Birdhouse Skateboards, Ricta, Park City Resort, Target, Mountain Dew, Transworld Snowboarding, Adio, Sony PlayStation, and HP.

White has been a participant in the winter X Games, where he has medaled every year since 2002. As of 2006, his medal count currently totals 8 (6 gold, 2 silver) in the winter X Games, including the first four-peat by a male athlete in one discipline, the slopestyle.

White also earned a gold medal in the men’s halfpipe while representing the United States at the 2006 Winter Olympics. He scored a 46.8 out of 50 on his first run. It was not beaten by any other boarder, ensuring him the gold before his final run.

[edit] Media and business ventures

Recently, White's movie, The White Album (a nod to the eponymous album by The Beatles), a snowboarding and skateboarding movie, debuted. He has also started his own clothing line in partnership with Burton called "The White Collection."

White has appeared as himself in the Rocket Power special "The Big Day," playing the moderator of a skating contest, where the winner would get to train with him for two weeks. White also appeared on Punk'd on his 19th birthday but MTV did not air the prank until December 5, 2005.

White also made an appearance as part of Pepsi's Dew Action Sports Tour, and in November 2004 was the Grand Marshal for NASCAR's fourth leg of the Grand Slam, the Mountain Dew Southern 500 in Darlington, SC. He has also appeared in Sony's commercial for the PSP.

On February 13, 2006, video game developer Ubisoft announced that they would be working with White on a snowboarding video game featuring Shaun White to be released in 2007. White also starred in "First Descent," a documentary based upon the amazing but sometimes controversial evolution and growth of snowboarding. The movie was filmed in the snowy mountains of Alaska. Shaun starred in the film alongside snowboarding champions including Hannah Teter, the Women's 2006 Gold Medalist at the halfpipe in the Torino, Italy Olympics.[4]

He currently appears In the new HP Pavilion Notebook laptop Internet commercials and in a commercial for ESPN SportsCenter.

He is traveling now to promote a new Burton DVD called "For Right or Wrong."

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Rolling Stone writer (2006). "Shaun White: Attack of the Flying Tomato" Rolling Stone (accessed July 12, 2006)
  2. ^ a b (2006). Shaun White BIO NBCOlympics.com (accessed July 31, 2006)
  3. ^ Cave, Steve (2006). Shaun White Profile About.com (accessed July 13, 2006)
  4. ^ http://www.ubisoftgroup.com/News/Info.aspx?nId=3776

[edit] External links

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