When skateboarding was added as a competition in the Olympics for the first time four years ago, legendary snowboarder Shaun White considered going after a spot on Team USA.
Unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the Tokyo Olympics back for a year to 2021, putting White in a tough spot of choosing between his two loves of skateboarding and snowboarding.
"I remember sitting there thinking like, 'Well normally I could do this Olympics and have two years to prepare for the Winter Olympics,' which I planned on competing in, and then it got bumped by a year," White told B/R in an exclusive interview. "I'm like, 'Wow, can I really afford to spend one more year completely focused on skating and then try to cram it all in and get one year of snowboarding in order to be ready for that next Olympics?' And it became a decision of whether I was gonna compete in snowboarding or skateboarding, and I felt like I had unfinished business."
White chose to focus on preparing for the 2022 Winter Olympics in hopes of defending the gold medal he won in 2018. He placed fourth in the men's halfpipe in what ended up being the final competition of his iconic career.
However, with skateboarding returning for the Paris Olympics this summer and legends like 50-year-old Andy Macdonald set to compete, White wouldn't rule out pursuing that goal once again.
"At this point, look, Andy's doing it, so you never know. I can make a late-career comeback," he said with a laugh.
White will be in Paris to watch Team USA as it seeks a better showing this time around. In Tokyo, bronze medalists Jagger Eaton and Cory Juneau were the only two Americans who earned spots on the podium. Eaton and legendary street skateboarder Nyjah Huston are back on the roster, so White believes they will be more prepared to compete on the world stage.
"It's not easy to show up at the Olympics and compete, and to be on that world stage wearing that Team USA uniform that you're not used to with all these other athletes. It's its own unique challenge, I would say," White explained. "For somebody like Nyjah, he's able to have been once before, and now he knows what to expect. So there's nothing more incredible as an athlete, to get a second bite at the apple. ... I'm really pulling for our athletes, especially the ones who are returning. I think they have an incredible chance to do well because they know the layout now."
NBC Olympics & Paralympics @NBCOlympicsNyjah Huston (<a href="">@nyjah</a>) shares the importance of representation and how the diversity of skateboarding inspires him. <a href="">#DiscoverBlackHeritage</a> <a href="">
In addition to being the most decorated snowboarder of all time with three Olympic gold medals and 18 Winter X Games medals (13 gold), White also established his dominance in skateboarding with five Summer X Games medals, including gold medals in 2007 and 2011.
With the X Games set to begin on Friday in Ventura, California, White looked back on fond memories of the event but also recalled a time when his presence ruffled some feathers.
"A lot of the athletes in skateboarding were like, 'Look, I know you already have this amazing career in snowboarding.' I was at the top of my game. I was 16, I was winning all the snowboarding events, making a great living. I was arguably one of the biggest names in the sport at that point," he said. "And now I'm coming over to skateboarding, and I was just buddy-buddy with everybody and then all of a sudden it was like, 'Oh wait, if you're winning this event, you're kind of taking my paycheck in a way.' So yeah, there was a little bit of tension there because they knew I was already so successful in one thing."
White is taking things much easier in his retirement. While he's still committed to his workout regimen, he's learning to slow down. He recently traveled to Aruba earlier this month to host a Relaxathon, which was a 60-minute relaxation competition verified by science that featured 100 relaxers from around the world.
The competitors spent an hour relaxing on the beach while wearing heart monitors and the top three earned gold, silver and bronze prize packages plus the title of "World's Greatest Relaxer." White is attempting to become the "King of Relaxation" this summer, so the event was a great experience for him.
"I usually do something physical every day, I try to be active. I try to either ride a bike or go play pickleball or do a light workout, something like that. And then I feel like my rest and my time to just relax is so important," he said. "It's so important to just take a moment to be like, 'Let's put the checklist of things I need to do aside, and let's just take a deep breath and enjoy the moment.' ... I think that's the thing you find in retirement, you're so appreciative of the time that you have now."
However, that doesn't mean the 37-year-old has completely given up on his daredevil ways, as he said he's still doing extreme sports "in moderation" while finding time to rest and recharge.
"I think it's just as important to be active and do those things as it is to shut down and just be OK with the nothingness for a bit, which was a really hard thing for me to do when I was younger," he added.
White is also doing his part to give back to the sport he loves, as he recently announced that he will be launching a professional snowboarding circuit in March 2025. The Snow League will fill a void by providing athletes with competitions to stay active as they prepare for the 2026 Winter Olympics. The league will also have a total prize purse of at least $1.5 million.
"It's just so needed," White said of The Snow League. "When I was 16, I won pretty much every contest that I entered, and I got to the end of the season and I'll never forget a reporter going, 'Amazing, you won pretty much everything you entered, this hasn't been done before in the sport, but how does it feel to not be the world champion?' And I'm like, 'What? What do I have to do, and what did I not do to not earn that title?' And right there you kind of understand that there's a disconnect within the sport."
Shaun White @shaunwhite6.17 <a href="">@thesnowleague</a> <a href="">
White admitted that this venture does give him an itch to return to competition, but he has appreciated the new experience of being on the other side of building a league from scratch.
"That's the hardest part, it's so frustrating because it's like I wish this was around when I competed because it would be so amazing, so a part of me is slightly jealous that I don't get to participate," he said. "And then the thought of competing is like, well, is it weird that I'm competing and it's something that I'm putting on? ... I gotta admit, I've been really enjoying this place in my life. I've done that dance for so long, and it's an incredible one."
However, he added that he likely won't be able to resist getting in a couple of runs when The Snow League is up and ready.
"There's a really beautiful space that I've been living in and I would hate to disturb that ecosystem, but yeah, you never know," he said. "I don't know. I definitely would have to do some sort of forerun. I'm not gonna build this pipe and then not ride it."
