White gets the last laugh in snowboard superpipe at X Games
ASPEN • Shaun White rode his snowboard to the bottom of a slick halfpipe, removed his helmet and slammed it off the ground.
“I’m going to put this next one down,” White said Sunday after crashing on his first and second runs of the Winter X Games snowboard superpipe competition. “I’m over it. I’m going to land this thing.”
The “Flying Tomato” backed up his words, executing a stylish final attempt in a snowstorm on Buttermilk Mountain to overtake his new rival, Kevin Pearce, for his ninth gold medal and 14th overall, both Winter X records.
A 2006 Olympic gold medalist, White, 22, of Carlsbad, Calif., bumped Pearce to silver and Finland’s Antti Autti to bronze with a backside 540 (1½ rotations) and a 900 (2½ rotations) that preceded back-to-back 1,080s (three rotations) and a McTwist 540.
“I thought about falling,” said White, the first Winter X competitor (man or woman) to defend a superpipe title. “I just kind of blanked all that out. That was not even an option.”
Men’s skiing slopestyle
T.J. Schiller performed back-to-back 900s and a 1,080 in building an insurmountable lead. Sammy Carlson placed second. Breckenridge’s Colby West was third.
Women’s skier X
Ophelie David of France nipped Sweden’s Magdalena Jonsson in the homestretch for her third straight title. Slovenian Sasa Faric took bronze.
Mono skier X
Paralympian Tyler Walker got a fast start and withstood a late charge by Aspen’s Sam Ferguson to win his second Winter X gold. Kees-Jan van der Klooster of the Netherlands was the bronze medalist.
Snowmobile freestyle
Joe Parsons atoned for a runner-up finish last year, defeating Justin Hoyer with a technically sound run. Hoyer lost control on a landing, then bulldozed over several cardboard boxes and missed a ramp.
Etc.
The four-day attendance was 68,100, down 4,400 from last year. Sunday attendance was 16,800.
