The Men’s Olympic Halfpipe event was more unpredictable than I would have thought. Not because of who won (snowboarding legend Shaun White… Of cooourse!!) but because the crrrazy tricks that were thrown down (again… Mostly by Shaun White. Don’t you just hate that guy?) Since he got first place in qualifiers, By the time his turn came around again, no one had beat his score. This gave White the option to take it easy during his second run, since he had already secured a win, but he decided to give the crowd something they could really go wild about. After consulting with his coaches, White decided to put together a run during which he fused together two of the hardest tricks in snowboarding. He threw a trick he had only done in competition a handful of times, his already near-perfected 1260 double McTwist. White received overwhelming approval from the audience AND the judges, who awarded him a 48.4 for his final run. That’s a damn near perfect score. The US earned two medals in this event, with White getting gold and Scotty Lago earning bronze. Lago’s run is not to be overlooked; he is, like White, a phenomenal snowboarder. He also has mastered the double cork, working in THREE variations of it in his run. For a more detailed account of the winning runs, visit this article from Transworld Snowboarding. That’s all for now!
White had the enviable position of going last in the two rounds of finals. Not surprisingly, he had a terrific first run, throwing in back-to-back double corks. The second round started with White’s score being a whopping 46.8.
I also have video floating around of Shaun White learning “the Tomahawk” at his own personal halfpipe (again, don’t you juuust hate him?!), I’ll be sure to embed it (if possible) or at least link to it once I track it down.
Xtremethings 