Snowboard legend Shaun White said the Beijing Games will be his final Olympics and likely his last competition.
White, 35, met with the media on Saturday and said he is soaking in the Olympics experience – his fifth — and all but announced his retirement from the sport.
“This has all had its amazing glow as I’ve decided this will be my last Olympics,” White said. “I’ve given it my all, there have been some ups and downs on the way to get here. And with that I feel I’ve got stronger and better.
“I’m just so excited about everything. Opening ceremony was incredible. The venue looks incredible. I’m just enjoying every single moment.”
He said he is “excited for that next chapter” to come after the Games.
“In my mind, I think I’ve decided this will be the last competition,” White said. “After the Olympics I don’t compete much after the Games because it’s just so much to get here and so much pressure and so much weighing on you and finally that relief is so wanted and needed. I usually take the season after the Olympics off to just refocus and kind of get excited about things again. But this will be last competition, which is pretty special too.”
A medal of any color in Beijing would be an achievement for White. He has fought through problems with his knee, back and ankle, and he’s facing competition from younger athletes who undoubtedly grew up idolizing him – athletes with a bigger bag of snowboard tricks than White now has.
He said he’s been dealing with ankle, knee and back issues and they were “little signs” that brought him to “this conclusion” at the end of 2021.
White also has 15 individual Winter X Games medals.
The transition to his post-retirement career already has come. He and his brother have launched a snowboard gear company, Whitespace, which in January released a limited number of snowboards. And the sport has been good to him. He has an estimated net worth of $60 million, per the website Celebrity Net Worth.
Back in Beijing, training for the halfpipe competition begins Sunday, with qualification beginning on Wednesday.
“I’m sort of pinching myself, with how lucky I am to still be here at this age,” he said.
–Field Level Media