The pre 2018 Winter Olympic mind games have begun with Shaun White throwing the gauntlet down to his biggest current rival, Australian snowboarder and World Champion, Scotty James.
In a recent interview posted on NBC, White, who was beaten by James by one point at the PeyongChang Olympic Test event this season and by numerous points at the Aspen X Games, claimed that he has to do more than James in order to win.
“No dissing to Scotty or anybody” White starts to say in the interview before, well, dissing Scotty. “but Scotty won those events with the run I did at Vancouver in 2010.”
White, fell while attempting a double cork 1440 at the X Games, a trick that James did not try in his winning run. He also landed a cab double cork 1440 and double McTwist 1260 in one run to win the US Open in Vail (James came second).
“That’s awesome, he’s kind of doing it his own way and he’s doing it big and confident and smooth. It’s tough when you show up to the contest and it’s like, if I did that run, they know I can do that run, I did it in 2010, so I don’t think I would have gotten a great score for it. I have to go here [raises his hand higher].
And that’s fine, because I feel like it’s going to push me to that place, but at times it is very challenging when you’re expected to do something. It’s not really looking at the whole field of what’s happening, it’s like they know you and they expect something. And that’s kind of like the shoes I live in.”
The article goes on to reveal that while White had a private halfpipe built for him in Silverton Colorado before the Vancouver 2010 games and in Perisher before the Sochi 2014 games, he will not be building a private halfpipe prior to Korea.
But things have changed since Sochi. White bought into Mammoth (which has now been bought by Aspen) which means he effectively owned any halfpipes built there and this record California snow season just gone means that Mammoth will be open until at least July 4, if not longer.
Clearly White has his eye on the Olympic gold prize and after a disappointing result in Sochi and no podium.
