White Reasserts Snowboarding Dominance Once More

Wednesday, 02 February 2011 07:52

Written by Julius

The 24 year-old snowboarder Shaun White has once again showed off his snowboarding prowess by winning the fourth straight Winter X Games gold medal. The event, held in Aspen, Colorado over the weekend, was his first half-pipe competition after grabbing the Olympic gold.

Shaun White has secured his victory by successfully landing his signature double McTwist 1260, a three-and-a-half inverted aerial rotation. He garnered a 97.33 score for that stunning trick in the men's super-pipe final on the Buttermilk Mountain.

On his first run, Shaun White, who has been battling with colds, still ran second place with a score of 89.0, behind Scotty Lago's 92.0. The consummate snowboarder, who wore an all-black outfit that made him look like a 1950s motorcyclist, said that Scotty Lago's lead in first run prompted him to resort to the all-or-nothing double McTwist 1260 in the second run.

For Shaun White, his fourth straight win at the Winter X Games earned him the reputation of the greatest competitive snowboarder in history. His records include two Olympic half-pipe gold medals and 16 Winter X Games medal, of which 11 of them are gold.

Shaun White also said that his victory redeemed himself from his slow start in the competition. On Thursday, finishing only 13th out of 16 riders, he failed to qualify for the slope-style finals.

Snowboarding, like most extreme sports, has lost some of its glory to injuries and fatal deaths. Most recent of this was on December of 2009, when snowboarder Kevin Pearce sustained traumatic brain injury while practicing in Park City, Utah.