Facts about Shaun White
Shaun White Biography
Shaun White is a snowboarding and skateboarding champion and the winner of two Olympic gold medals in the men’s snowboarding half-pipe competition.
He grew up in southern California, where he learned to ski, snowboard and skateboard. Mentored in skateboarding by champion Tony Hawk and a pro since the age of 17, Shaun White has won numerous X Games awards in both skateboarding and snowboarding, but it’s his dominant position as a snowboarder that has gained him international attention.
Dubbed “The Flying Tomato” because of his buoyant red hair, White won the gold medal in 2006 at the Winter Olympics in Turin, and the gold medal in 2010 at Vancouver, British Columbia.
White’s success has led to millions of dollars in endorsements, as well as his own video games and occasional appearances on TV and in movies.
For the 2014 Winter games in Sochi, he prepared to compete in the snowboard slope style, but dropped out of that event in early February to focus on the half-pipe, where he eventually finished fourth.
White then took things a little slower, competing less and tending to an old ankle injury. With new staff to help him and a new approach, he blazed ahead in 2017 and earned the chance once again to medal in the Winter Olympics in 2018.
Extra credit
Shaun White was born with a heart defect that was surgically corrected before he was a year old… In the 2011 comedy film Friends with Benefits, Shaun White played an obnoxious version of himself… His long, wavy red hair was something of a trademark until December of 2012, when he had it shorn for a charitable organization.