Shaun White wins 3rd Olympic gold in contest for the ages
Shaun White
They will definitely still be talking about  Shaun  White.
It wasnât so much that  White  won  his  third gold medal to place  his  name among the greatest to compete in the Olympics  or in any realm of sports  for that matter.
It was the way  he  did it.
 His  winning run capped a contest that  even before  he  dropped in for the finale  was the best  in terms of pure difficulty  showmanship and guts that has ever been seen on a halfpipe.
It came with the heart-thumping pressure of knowing  he  had to land the most difficult run  he  ever attempted  or settle for silver.
It included back-to-back jumps  each with 1440 degrees of spin  that are  quite literally  death-defying. They were tricks  White  said afterward that  he  had never landed in succession â not in practice and  of course  never in a contest.
âI knew I had  it  in me â  he  said. âThe fear was out of the door. Iâm at the Olympics. I had to do  it . Iâm standing at the top  in my favorite position  with the pressure of the world and one run to go. Man  it brings out the best in me. Iâm so glad thatâs a part of me as a competitor.â
On the winning trip   White  got the tough stuff out of the way early  dropping straight into the halfpipe  flying nearly 20 feet above it and whipping  his  body around twice while going head-over-heels two times.  He  landed high enough on the wall to gather sufficient speed to head to the other side and essentially do a mirror image of the first trick.
From there   he  performed what  he  calls a Sky Hook â a 20-foot vault above the deck in which  he  bent  himself  into the shape of a comma  while grabbing the board and tweaking it up toward  his  backside to show judges the style they demand.  His  final trick was one  he  patented: the Double McTwist 1260  in which  he  took off from the wall for two flips with 1 Â½ twists  grabbing the board and practically wrestling it over  his  head to complete the jump and stick the landing.
 He  knew  he âd done it  but the wait â about 120 seconds â was agonizing.
The score came up. A 97.75. It was enough to beat Ayumu Hirano  the 5-foot-2  19-year-old from Japan who has been asked   quite often  exactly when  he  was going to beat Shaun White.
But it was Hirano  who now has back-to-back Olympic silvers  who set the stakes for these games by becoming the first man to land the back-to-back 14s at the Winter X Games last month. He did  it  again on his second run under a slate-gray sky in Pyeongchang to set the mark (95.25) that  White  would have to beat.
He did  it . Shortly after his winning score came up   White  was hugging friends and family and sobbing  almost uncontrollably â the sort of emotion rarely seen from the man who burst onto the scene as the ebullient redhead shredder dude  then grew into a multi-platform  megastar whose light shines well beyond any halfpipe.
 White  would be the first to admit that a lot of that fame came because of the Olympics. So the win wasnât so hard to put into perspective.
âHe ripped his face in half  more or less  and you can still see the scars â said Whiteâs coach  JJ Thomas. âAnd I donât know if anyone else in this world has the mental strength to overcome that fear and lay  it  down on the world stage.  It âs amazing. Heâs legendary.â
The debate is now on about where  exactly   White  stands in the pantheon of Olympic stars  or sports stars in general.
They will definitely still be talking about  Shaun  White.
It wasnât so much that  White  won  his  third gold medal to place  his  name among the greatest to compete in the Olympics  or in any realm of sports  for that matter.
It was the way  he  did it.
 His  winning run capped a contest that  even before  he  dropped in for the finale  was the best  in terms of pure difficulty  showmanship and guts that has ever been seen on a halfpipe.
It came with the heart-thumping pressure of knowing  he  had to land the most difficult run  he  ever attempted  or settle for silver.
It included back-to-back jumps  each with 1440 degrees of spin  that are  quite literally  death-defying. They were tricks  White  said afterward that  he  had never landed in succession â not in practice and  of course  never in a contest.
âI knew I had  it  in me â  he  said. âThe fear was out of the door. Iâm at the Olympics. I had to do  it . Iâm standing at the top  in my favorite position  with the pressure of the world and one run to go. Man  it brings out the best in me. Iâm so glad thatâs a part of me as a competitor.â
On the winning trip   White  got the tough stuff out of the way early  dropping straight into the halfpipe  flying nearly 20 feet above it and whipping  his  body around twice while going head-over-heels two times.  He  landed high enough on the wall to gather sufficient speed to head to the other side and essentially do a mirror image of the first trick.
From there   he  performed what  he  calls a Sky Hook â a 20-foot vault above the deck in which  he  bent  himself  into the shape of a comma  while grabbing the board and tweaking it up toward  his  backside to show judges the style they demand.  His  final trick was one  he  patented: the Double McTwist 1260  in which  he  took off from the wall for two flips with 1 Â½ twists  grabbing the board and practically wrestling it over  his  head to complete the jump and stick the landing.
 He  knew  he âd done it  but the wait â about 120 seconds â was agonizing.
The score came up. A 97.75. It was enough to beat Ayumu Hirano  the 5-foot-2  19-year-old from Japan who has been asked   quite often  exactly when  he  was going to beat Shaun White.
But it was Hirano  who now has back-to-back Olympic silvers  who set the stakes for these games by becoming the first man to land the back-to-back 14s at the Winter X Games last month. He did   [TGT]   again on his second run under a slate-gray sky in Pyeongchang to set the mark (95.25) that  White  would have to beat.
He did   [TGT]  . Shortly after his winning score came up   White  was hugging friends and family and sobbing  almost uncontrollably â the sort of emotion rarely seen from the man who burst onto the scene as the ebullient redhead shredder dude  then grew into a multi-platform  megastar whose light shines well beyond any halfpipe.
 White  would be the first to admit that a lot of that fame came because of the Olympics. So the win wasnât so hard to put into perspective.
âHe ripped his face in half  more or less  and you can still see the scars â said Whiteâs coach  JJ Thomas. âAnd I donât know if anyone else in this world has the mental strength to overcome that fear and lay   [TGT]   down on the world stage.   [TGT]  âs amazing. Heâs legendary.â
The debate is now on about where  exactly   White  stands in the pantheon of Olympic stars  or sports stars in general.