Shaun White: The Guy who Raised the Bar in Snowboarding | Legends Live On

Video Statistics and Information

Video
Captions Word Cloud
Reddit Comments
Captions
To be a legend in a sport you have to change it. You force the rest of the sport to become better because you exist. He's just an incredible athlete and amazing competitor. I've done more in business and in life and these things than I ever have after winning the Olympics. There is that old adage, it's lonely at the top. It is. People think I'm from Vermont, people think I'm from Colorado, like, I've never in my entire career as a professional snowboarder, lived in the mountains, never. I'm considered one of the world's best snowboarders and I'm from the beach, man, I had asthma as a kid. I didn't like the altitude, the cold, any of these things but I'm, I guess, considered one of the best. He makes everything look easy, right? That's the sign of an amazing athlete, as you do the most difficult things, you make them look easy. Probably one of the best competitors there's ever been in snowboarding. He's just influenced the sport and got so many people into it, it's just incredible. I always had a drive to be the best. I always wanted to skate so well at the park that Tony Hawk would notice me. Shaun used to skate here all the time. Shaun used to live down here so this was his local ramp. So basically I would see him on the ramp and it was this legendary guy that would just show up and skate the ramp and talk about being inspired. I mean, seeing the world's best at your park every day, doing his thing, I mean, it was amazing. This little kid, basically, he started to get his strength, he started to get his confidence and all of a sudden he was doing tricks that we had never dreamed of. I first became aware of Shaun when he first put out a video on YouTube and I think he was 11 years old. It was just incredible watching him snowboard. He was so above his time, like, it was mad. My brother was seven years older than me. I would follow him through the park and hit all the jumps that he was hitting at the time. By the time I was his age about seven years later, I was already off doing these big tricks that a lot of the pros couldn't do or a lot of the guys at the mountain were just learning and I was way younger than everyone. He was the only kid around and he was beating all the men hands down in a lot of the contests. I was at a snowboard event here in southern California and I remember seeing this little kid. I mean, he looked like a pixie, with his giant helmet, coming down the halfpipe. I won the first contest I entered when I was about eight or nine, or something like that and people were taking notice of me at the mountain. I was really young, I was really small but I was still able to clear the big jumps. They called him the Flying Tomato and it was all about his red hair and his freckles. I didn't really get along with the other kids at that time because, you know, it was competitive. Shaun felt detached from his peers because he was so far ahead of them and I honestly went through the same exact thing, especially in my teenage years and my 20s. I was winning most of the competitions. By the time I went pro it was like, OK, I'm pro and, you know, no-one's taking me seriously because I'm tiny. It was very bizarre and surreal to be a part of the Olympic team and I wasn't really ready or expecting that. You know, I found myself in the room with all the other US team riders, cheering for curling, cheering for the downhill skiers. All these people that we don't totally take notice of but you're a part of this team now, you're all wearing the same outfits, you're doing the thing together and so it was just like a community vibe that I got when I was there that I wasn't expecting to experience. You're coming into Torino with a lot of expectations for the US team. This is our sport, we started this. (SHAUN WHITE) (TORINO 2006 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 1) Just incredible, he was so consistent and he was just getting higher and higher and I wish I could go that high. I tell you now, going that high out of a halfpipe must be so scary. He gets more amplitude out of the halfpipe than just about anyone and he holds that throughout his run. And the reason getting height out of the pipe is so difficult is because it not only takes incredible technique to hold your edge in an icy halfpipe, but the higher you get out of the pipe, the more risk you're taking. So it takes a lot of guts. He was incredible, he went early, pretty high score and one by one he watched his competitors go and not match his score, so his last run was a victory lap. (TORINO 2006 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 2) I'll never forget coming down to the bottom of the halfpipe and I knew I'd done something pretty incredible and amazing when I saw my family there and they're all in tears, everyone's crying and I realised that we had made it. Please welcome the Olympic medallists. You know, you're on the world stage. To win something like that just carries so much weight. Nothing really has the same ring as 'I'm an Olympic gold medallist'. You can be anywhere in the world and say that and people will turn their head. Shaun White. At the time I didn't realise how much weight it was going to carry. You know what I mean? I didn't really understand what was happening. Knowing that now, I would have been terrified at the time. That was the most difficult time almost of my life, I would say, after that first Olympics. It was very hard to deal with the new success. Everybody wants you to do some sort of stunt. They're like, come out, you're the extreme guy. We'll hang you upside down, we'll slide you in, you know, and you'll have some sort of stunt and can you wear your goggles on the stage? And I had to say no. I had to say no to all these people because that wasn't who I am. You've got to also learn to ignore the haters, and I think Shaun did. I mean, he had plenty. There's so much in life that could side-track you but I managed to keep my focus on what I wanted to do. I wanted to show not only myself and competitors and fans and all these people and sponsors, all these things, that it wasn't a fluke the first time. The stakes have grown in those four years. The tricks were becoming more and more advanced, so going into that Olympic, Shaun was certainly the talk of the Games. (VANCOUVER 2010 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 1) When you watch him ride a halfpipe, you can see compared to everyone else, his technique's flawless, he's always on one edge. He's never making any scuff marks in the flat bottom of the halfpipe. It's always a clean edge and he always gets the pop perfectly off the wall and he's always going the biggest so he's always going to be at the top and winning. The judges want to see that you can spin both directions, that you can take off front side and back side. They want to see variety and they want to see amplitude. They want to see that you are getting height out of the halfpipe and that you are performing maybe even some of your toughest tricks at the bottom of the pipe at the end of your run, meaning you're keeping speed and amplitude throughout the run. He was so way more ahead than anyone else, it was mad. So I'm standing up there at the top of the halfpipe and I'm in first place. Riders are going, falling, scores are coming in. No-one's beaten my score and I realise that the last rider had dropped and didn't beat my score. So I had won the Olympics and I'm overwhelmed with joy and just, I don't know, adrenaline and all these things and I realise, wow, I still have one more run to go. And I had this special trick, the double McTwist 1260 in my back pocket just in case somebody landed some once in a lifetime sort of thing and I had to really pull this out of the bag. Vancouver, everyone's talking about the double McTwist 1260, right? You didn't even have to know anything about snowboarding - you knew the term double McTwist 1260. He's won already. He could literally go down the halfpipe and do straight airs and he's still won, but he wants to prove to everyone that he's still got extra in him. I've got to do it. I'd talked about it, people are expecting it, I'm going for it, I don't care and that's kind of like a deal that I made with myself before I even got there, I'm like, I'm doing this. (VANCOUVER 2010 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 2) I saw his set-up, it was not ideal and when you're unleashing a new trick like that, everything leading up to it has to be on point. You have to get the right landing, you have to get the right amount of speed and when I watched him approach it, I was like, it's not going to work. And Shaun, being the fierce competitor that he is, figured it out. If you watch the footage I actually landed pretty badly. It was a poor set-up for this trick on the air before it and so, I don't know, I was just committed on doing it and I just, I made it work. He did not have to throw that trick. That was, I think, one of the most memorable moments of Vancouver and one of the most defining moments in Shaun's career. He already had the top score and then he goes and tries this insanely hard trick at the end. That's what we do as skateboarders, as snowboarders. It's the stage that you're on. I mean, it was the venue, it was the time to unleash something like that. People came up to me, they still come up to me and they're like, man, you won it. You should have just ridden down with your shirt off, like waving the flag, like straight down the middle, but you went and you did something spectacular and one up the run you had before and you didn't have to do it, and that's the spirit of, you know, competition and being an athlete and showing everything. I left it all out on the mountain that day. I didn't really hold back and that's... I was content after. Gold medallist and Olympic champion, representing the United States of America, Shaun White. I remember showing up at an X-Games competition and feeling very, feeling pretty hated in the world of snowboarding. There's a resentment there when you're that successful, but it's jealousy, what can you say? People want to be in that position and they want a taste of what you're experiencing. There is that old adage, it's lonely at the top - it is. Been thinking about this one for a while but it's for a good cause so I want to do it. I want to donate it, though. Right around that time when he cut his hair, people kept asking, "You're the Flying Tomato, "without all that crazy hair, "what's your new nickname going to be?" And I remember him saying, "Can you just call me Shaun?" Let's try being Shaun White for a little while. It's a good cause. I did it for you, Locks of Love. I don't think it was anything besides just looking a little more serious and he was running businesses at the time. He's a man now, he's not that crazy kid that's on the ramp, that's trying anything and trying to get attention. It's so funny because competing in 2006, I won the gold medal and it marked one of the most difficult times of my life. A couple of years later it's like, the Vancouver Olympics is coming up, if I just win this Olympics it's going to solve everything. It's a great cause, what you're doing. Someone will appreciate this and love it. I got to the Olympics, I wanted to cement who I was in the sport and have another win at the Olympics and I did it, and you finish that marathon and there's just another one waiting. Bye-bye. (OLYMPIC WINTER GAMES SOCHI 2014) Sochi was really hard. The halfpipe wasn't brilliant, it was offline. The pipe wall wasn't properly straight. I was now doing two disciplines. I was going for slope style and halfpipe, so my time was divided. We got there and the slope style course was just out of control. People were getting hurt left and right. I watched a friend of mine get knocked out right in front of me and I'm like, I don't know if this is worth it. So I had to make this extremely difficult decision to pull out of slope style, which was horrible. What I was feeling inside was actually portrayed physically in the course and it was tough, I mean, just to see the things that happened online - he was a coward and this happened, he should have given his spot to the other person. I earned that spot, you know, I earned it and I can do with it what I please. I think that he had stressed himself out trying to stay at the top of the halfpipe and then run over and play catch-up in a slope-style scene that had just skyrocketed in the few years that he wasn't competing in it. I plan and I think out every detail of what I'm going to wear, to what the sky's going to look like to, you know, what I should probably eat. Every time before a competition I eat a steak. I don't know whether it's going to help me or not but this is the meal I eat. And my coach came back and he's just like, "Man, we're in the middle of Russia, "I can't find you a steak right now, it's super late". He heated up some old like, pork that was in the fridge and I'm just like, "All right, "if you want to break tradition tonight, OK". So we get up there and things are going well. I won the qualifying with this great run. I'm like, "OK, I can shake it off "and we can get through this". And I remember being there at the top and I had this certain song playing in my pocket and it was just like watching a crazy movie unfold before your eyes. I mean, I remember being there but I don't remember being in control of myself or what was happening. (SOCHI 2014 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 1) I remember watching it. I was down at the bottom of the halfpipe and it's just horrible because obviously I was rooting for him, I wanted him to win. I don't know, it just felt off. I'm not going to win and I knew it. It was a very strange thing to say that and it's wild to be this honest with you guys but I knew, I just felt it, it's just this weird gut thing and I was pounding myself on the mountain and in my mind and all these things that if I just keep beating myself over the head with it, maybe it will just work out and my skill will be so next level that I'll ghost ride through it and I'll win. (SOCHI 2014 MEN'S SNOWBOARD HALFPIPE FINAL - RUN 2) He had one experience at the Olympics, winning it. Winning it on his first run, coming out of the Olympics as the face of the Olympics. And so to be internally dealing with failure, of not even making the podium, of not landing the run you came to land, not doing the tricks you came to do, not even competing in both events, I can't imagine what that felt like. People felt for me even more, you know, to see the one expected to win not win. People that were in the sport that really disliked me were all of a sudden posting on their Instagrams about how great I was and he's just a spectacular guy, and I'm like, you hated me like just before this. It was amazing to see the mind-set and the veil that got dropped over people's eyes where they realised that I'm just like them. I had the tricks to win. I had everything going my way and I just couldn't let myself do it. Yeah, winning's great, it makes you feel great. It's like you accomplished something, you set out a goal and you did it and it's amazing and you earned that but, you know, it doesn't really equal happiness. And finally I had won the Olympics and I was unhappy. I won the Olympics I was unhappy, I lost the Olympics and I was happy. He seemed to throw himself into music and his band and that was sort of where he found comfort. He went on tour with them and got away from snowboarding and by the time I had seen him, he seemed like a different guy. It's changed me and I think I've done more in business and in life and these things than I ever have after winning the Olympics. I've started my own companies, clothing lines. I'm a part owner in Mammoth Mountain. I own a sports and music festival called Air and Style. We do events all over the world. I was in a band, I did all sorts of fun things and lived my life and people still called me the champ, and I realised that you can't really take away what happened in the past. Every athlete today was an aspiring one as a kid and had their heroes and sought autographs and dreamed about being an athlete and so I think now, when someone becomes an athlete, they get it. I had open heart surgeries as a child and I wasn't supposed to be very active. The odds are stacked against you from the beginning. The Make-a-Wish Foundation, they contacted me at a young age and said, "Hey, we have a child "that would like to come meet you "or come snowboard if that's possible, "or just to get to know you". I was very honoured and humbled and, yeah, of course, I mean, I would love to do that for somebody. I mean, what an honour. Kyle had seen Shaun snowboarding and had just been so impressed with him that he wanted to meet him and he wanted to snowboard with him for a day. The more they talked, the more they realised that they had a lot in common, that they were both from San Diego, they had both had open heart surgery, they had the same surgeon. And then, I think what was just the icing on the cake is that they compared scars and the scars matched. My family spent so much time in the hospitals like, this thing that we went through and so now speaking with other families, I get it. When Kyle told me about it, it was if he didn't even remember that he had a heart condition, that he had had open heart surgeries and that his health was bad. What he knew was that that was the best day of his life. And so it's rewarding not only for me but hopefully for them as well and I love to do it, any chance I get, I say yes. Since 2008, Shaun has granted at least 20 wishes to kids. It's pretty great to feel content in ways, you know, with my life, with my business, with my friends, my family and to realise that this is what I do, you know, I snowboard. I do many things actually now in life, but this is one of them and I'm great at it. And something pretty amazing has happened and we knew it was going to happen but it's just amazing that it's finally here - skateboarding is now in the Olympics. Snowboarding introduced this youthful energy and this youthful viewership into the Olympics, into the Winter Games, and I firmly believe that skateboarding will do the same for the Summer Games. I would have to make a very big decision at that point if I'm going to go and try to compete at the Summer Games for skateboarding. He's just an incredible athlete and amazing competitor across skateboarding and snowboarding and I don't think there'll be anyone like him for a long time. He's going to keep snowboarding, he's not going to quit. Are you kidding me? Even if he chose to be out of the limelight, if he chose to never compete again, never be on TV again, you've got to bet anything he's going to be out there snowboarding. To be a legend in a sport you have to change it. You force the rest of the sport to become better because you exist and that is why Shaun is a legend. If I can inspire that for the next generation that's pretty amazing. The clothing line, damn. You've got to be quick. Hell, no, I'm, going to drag this one out. (SHAUN WHITE ACHIEVED THE HIGHEST EVER (OLYMPIC HALFPIPE SCORE AT VANCOUVER 2010, (HAVING ALREADY WON HIS FIRST RUN) (HE HAS CREATED AN ANNUAL MUSIC AND SKI FESTIVAL, (IS CO-OWNER OF A SKI-RESORT (AND RUNS HIS OWN CLOTHING BRAND) (SHAUN'S OLYMPIC DREAM IS TO ADD (A SUMMER GOLD IN SKATEBOARDING AT TOKYO 2020)
Info
Channel: Olympics
Views: 4,920,684
Rating: 4.8318715 out of 5
Keywords: Olympic Games, Olympics, IOC, Sport, Champion, Legends Live On, Legends, legend, legendary, iconic, icon, hero, Olympic, bronze, silver, gold, yt:cc=on, PLLLO, التزلج على الثلوج, 单板滑雪, Surf des neiges, スノーボード, 스노보드, Сноубординг, Snowboard, Shaun White, USA, pyeongchang, winter games, winter olympics, 2018, 2010, vancouver, 2006, turin
Id: fqdAhD0CJqw
Channel Id: undefined
Length: 26min 2sec (1562 seconds)
Published: Tue Jan 30 2018
Related Videos
Note
Please note that this website is currently a work in progress! Lots of interesting data and statistics to come.