BARDONECCHIA, Italy -American Shaun White proved to be the world’s best at men’s halfpipe snowboard Sunday as advertised. But no one, least of all White, figured he’d earn gold at the Turin Olympics by coming through the competition’s version of the losers’ bracket.
The 19-year-old “Flying Tomato” – so called because of his long, red hair – rallied after scraping the lip of the pipe early in his first run to blow away the competition. He recorded the two top performances, his best coming at the best time possible-the first half of the 12-man finals. He clinched the gold before making the last run.
That made his finale a victory lap, which he closed with moves that resembled surfing up the wall. It was like turning doughnuts at Daytona – albeit in temperatures that topped out in the high 30s.
“Got my slash on, some spray,” said White, who lives near San Diego.
“After that fall, it really hit me. I needed to step it up. Did my thing.”
Danny Kass, 23, of Hamburg, N.J., repeated a silver performance, which he accomplished behind teammate Ross Powers in 2002. Finland’s Markku Koski edged out Mason Aguirre of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., for third place to prevent a second consecutive USA sweep.
White began snowboarding at age 6, turned pro at 13 and nearly qualified for the Salt Lake City Games at 15. He admitted that the pressure of being the Olympic favorite overwhelmed him as he looked down at the 145-meter pipe and 11,000 spectators below in the mountain village located only a few miles from the French border.
“I didn’t deal with it too well,” White said. “I never really felt that before. I was standing up there looking at the crowd. I was even looking at the halfpipe wall. I looked around and said, “Where are we?’ “
In the unique Olympic format, the top six among 44 riders in the first qualifying round advance straight to the finals. That leaves the rest to compete for the other six berths in the second round. White’s first-round gaffe left him in seventh place while the other three Americans – Kass, Aguirre and Andy Finch of Fresno, Calif. – all advanced.
Relegated to second-round qualifying, he planned to make a relatively safe run to ensure advancement. Instead, his score of 45.3 out of 50 was the best in the field to that point.
The finalists made two runs each, with the best single performances counting. White nailed a 46.8 to grab the lead after the first round. His sequence featured straight air into a McTwist (an inverted aerial featuring a 540-degree rotational flip), front and “cab” 1080s (three full rotations) and front and back 900s (two and half rotations).
“Once I landed that “back 9,’ it really kind of hit me,” White said.
“Then I saw that score.”
Kass stood first after the initial qualifying round. But he fell on his third of five tricks in the first half of the finals and came back with a 44.0 to earn the silver.
Aguirre, 18, stood third behind White and Koski after the first half of the finals at 40.3. He was bumped to fourth with Kass’ run, and his 37.1 finish couldn’t top Koski’s 41.5.
He appeared crestfallen when his score was posted but said he knew where he stood right after the ride.
“Sometimes it doesn’t work out how you want to,” he said. “But I got to come over here and ride with my friends. I’m happy for Danny and Shaun.”
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PHOTOS (from KRT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): snowboard
AP-NY-02-12-06 1440EST
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