Shaun White leaves the crowd stunned with his epic performance in Men’s SuperPipe Final at Tignes
Heading to Tignes, France, for the third edition of the European version of Winter X Games, there was a lot of hype surrounding the Men’s Snowboard SuperPipe contest, which was going to bring the American phenom Shaun White and Switzerland’s Iouri “IPod”
Podladtchikov face-to-face.
With riders such as America’s Louie Vito, defending Winter X Games Europe Champion, also in contention for the coveted spot on the podium, the fans were expecting the battle to be nothing short of exhilarating.
The 25-year-old White always finds himself in spotlight at whatever event he competes in. The two-time Olympic gold medallist made history at Aspen earlier this year after completing Winter X Games SuperPipe’s first-ever five-peat with a run in the Final
that left the crowd and judges completely stunned in awe. The run earned a perfect score from the judges who were unable to find anything wrong in White’s magical run.
It was only natural to expect something similar from the charismatic rider at Tignes despite, though one could hardly ignore the fact that IPod and Vito were no pushovers and were not going to make the climb to the highest spot on the podium easy for him.
As the world’s best riders came together on Thursday, March 15, to take each other on for the coveted honours in one of the biggest stages of winter action sports, the crowd knew something amazing was about to happen.
With the likes of White, Vito and IPod in contention for top honours, one could hardly disagree with the intuition of the crowd.
As the Final kicked-off, White did not keep the fans waiting and pulled the curtain off the run that he had planned for the Final. The run featured a switch cab double cork, a double McTwist 1260 and an alley-oop rodeo, with each of the tricks executed with
perfection. White has an ability to make the most complicated of things look easy and that is exactly the sort of ease with which he landed the run.
Everyone at the event site held their breath as the judges pondered over the score that the run deserved. After a short wait, the judges revealed the score, a staggering 98.00.
“I feel amazing,” White said afterward. “That first run I gave it my all and I was standing there with a chance to back it up on the last run. But I was just happy to have a victory lap.”
With the bar set outrageously high in the very first run, the rest of the riders found themselves under immense pressure.
The 23-year-old Vito landed a pretty impressive first run to score a 92.00 off it, still way behind the required score. He stepped up in his third run and went for even more technical tricks, which included four consecutive double corks. However, he still
found himself falling short of the required score after earning a 94.33. His efforts did not turn out to be in complete vain as he got to take home the silver medal.
The 23-year-old IPod was being considered as one of the biggest threat to White’s score, but it was soon evident that the wall was indeed too high for the Swiss rider to climb. After a good first run for an 88.00, Vito decided to go for the kill in the third
run with his new trick, a switch double McTwist 1260. However, he was unable to set it up properly and ended up crashing. As a result, he had to settle for his Run 1 score as his best, taking home the bronze medal.
“I wasn't planning on trying it, but I came around so much on that first double I landed switch. I had speed and was feeling good, so figured I'd try it,” Podladtchikov conceded afterwards. “No one understands how hard that trick is. The pressure to try
to do it switch is, like... you don't know what you're asking. There's a reason only Shaun and I do the double McTwist. It's so scary.”
It sure turned out to be White’s year at the Winter X Games with him standing atop the podium at both Aspen and Tignes. The only thing that remains to be seen is if he would be able to convince the judges to give him his fourth gold of the year at X Games
18 in Los Angeles (not yet confirmed) or not.
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