Shaun White

Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986) is an American former professional snowboarder and skateboarder.

He is a five-time Olympian and a three-time Olympic gold medalist in half-pipe snowboarding.

He holds the world record for the most X Games gold medals and most Olympic gold medals by a snowboarder.

He has also won 10 ESPY Awards throughout his career in various categories.

White was born in San Diego, California, to parents Cathy and Roger.

When he was young his mother was a waitress and his father, who grew up surfing, worked for the San Clemente, California, water department.

He is the youngest of four children.

His ancestry includes Irish and Italian.

He was born with a Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect for which he required two open-heart operations before the age of one.

White spent his early years riding the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California with his family.

They would stay in a van in resort parking lots.

At an early age White's skills drew admirers.

Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk befriended the nine-year-old White at the Encinitas, California, YMCA skate park and mentored him, helping White turn pro in skateboarding at the age of 16.

White has said that "Tony was my hero and I was too terrified to talk to him so every time I saw him at the skate park I would try to impress him with my skateboarding in the hopes that one day he would say something to me."

White has won many titles on his skateboard, including the overall title of Action Sports Tour Champion, and was the first person to compete in and win both the Summer and Winter X Games in two different sports.

Following in his older brother Jesse White's footsteps, White switched from skiing to snowboarding at age six, and by age seven, he received his first sponsorship.

White has participated in five Winter Olympics in his career.

White has also participated in the Winter X Games, where he has won a medal every year since 2002.

He won the Air & Style Contest in 2003 and 2004.

At the 2006, 2010, and 2018 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the snowboard halfpipe event.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the half-pipe.

After his first run in qualifications, White was almost out of competition, scoring only 37.7.

On his second run, he recorded a score of 45.3.

In the finals, White recorded a score of 46.8 (50 is the highest possible score) to win.

Fellow American Danny Kass won the silver with a points total of 44.0.

White's streak was snapped in 2007 when he lost to Andreas Wiig and Teddy Flandreau, with White taking the bronze.

This followed White's win at the 25th (2007) Burton US Open, where he placed third in slopestlyle and first in the halfpipe.

At the 2007 Open, White was also crowned the first "Burton Global Open Champion".

Executing a near-flawless second run, White captured his third consecutive snowboard halfpipe title at the 2008 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships to go along with his third US Open slopestyle competition.

On November 16, 2008, White released his first video game, Shaun White Snowboarding, in North America (November 14, 2008, in Europe).

Shaun White Snowboarding was the 20th-best-selling game of December 2008 in the United States.

Controversy followed White's win on the 2009 SuperPipe at Winter X Games XIII.

Kevin Pearce had five hits in the pipe, and all were the same tricks White did in his final run.

White, on the other hand, had six hits and he started off his run with a big backside rodeo 540 where Pearce started his run off with a big grab.

Although Pearce went bigger, he had fewer hits, and his first hit wasn't as technically difficult as White's first hit.

Judges came to the conclusion that White deserved the better score because he started off with a more technical trick and he had one more hit than Pearce.

With the win, White became the second competitor, after Tanner Hall, to win a gold medal in the SuperPipe in consecutive years at the Winter X Games.

He also won a gold medal in Slopestyle, finally winning gold after two consecutive years of bronze.

His take for the event was $100,000 (Global Open Champ), $20,000 (1st Place Halfpipe), $90,000 (3rd Place Slopestyle), and a new Corvette.

Including all winter X Games competitions through 2013, his medal count stands at 18 (13 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze), among which is the first quadruple win streak by a male athlete in one discipline, the snowboard slopestyle.