White wins halfpipe snowboarding gold

2/17/2010
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WEST VANCOUVER, B.C. — How 'bout that!

Putting on a show when he didn't even have to, Shaun White capped his gold-medal night on the halfpipe with his signature trick Wednesday — the dangerous, spiraling Double McTwist 1260 during a victory lap that will go down as nothing short of epic.

The redheaded shredder scored a 48.4 on the final run, even though he was already assured of defending his Olympic title with a score of 46.8 on his first trip. Getting ready to close the night, he debated with his coaches for a minute, then made the decision to go for it.

And he did — jerking his body around to milk the last half of the 3 twists he crams into two head-over-heels flips.

An exclamation point on a spectacular day for the Americans at the Olympics, who already had golds from Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn and speedskater Shani Davis in the bag.

Wearing a white and blue bandanna that goes perfect with the red hair, White easily outdistanced Finland's Peetu Piiroinen.

American Scotty Lago took bronze to give the United States multiple medals on the halfpipe for the last three Olympics. Including the women, the U.S. halfpipe team has won 12 of the 21 medals awarded since the sport came to the games in 1998.

But has there ever been a bigger snowboarding star than White?

He's the multimillionaire who somehow flashes a businessman's smarts without losing touch with the culture that defines snowboarding — the only sport that would think of bringing snow pants designed to look like torn-up jeans to the Olympic Games.