Shaun White makes history with his perfect run in Snowboard SuperPipe at Winter X Games Aspen 2012
American snowboarder Shaun White proved to the world that perfection was not unattainable as many believed. Competing against some of the best riders from around the world at the biggest stage of winter action sports, Winter X Games Aspen 2012, the Californian
rider left everyone in awe as he made history by landing a perfect, yes you heard it right, perfect run in the Snowboard SuperPipe Final on Sunday, January 29.
White’s trip to Buttermilk Mountain had not started off well as he sprained his left ankle last week that prevented him from competing in the Snowboard Slopestyle contest. The disappointment had indeed been huge for the two-time Olympic medallist and he decided
to compensate for it by giving his all during the SuperPipe contest. He was still icing his ankle prior to Sunday’s Final, quite uncertain whether he would be able to ride at all, let alone find a place on the podium.
With the likes of Switzerland’s Iouri Podladtchikov, Japan’s Ryo Aono who won gold in Slopestyle on Friday and Ohio’s Louie Vito in contention for the coveted medal on Sunday, White surely had a challenging task ahead of him.
With his injury healing enough to allow him to ride, the Carlsbad-based rider entered the SuperPipe on Sunday to land an outstanding first run, earning a 94.00 for the effort. Podladtchikov responded with a spectacular run of his run, but got rewarded with
a 90.00 to remain behind his American rival on the score-board. Aono moved into third place after scoring an unthreatening 86.00.
There had been a buzz about White’s new trick, a front-side double cork 1260, for a while now and everyone was anticipating the trick to make its debut to Winter X this year. The 25-year-old attempted the trick in his second run, but it turned out to be unsuccessful.
However, the frustration of missing the Slopestyle contest on Saturday due to his ankle injury pushed him to stretch himself in his third and final run of the contest. Little did anyone, or even him for that matter, expect that this particular run was about
to go down in history as the first ever perfect run to be landed in a Winter X contest. White’s Run 3 featured a massive 18-foot back-side air, a front-side double cork 1080, a Cab double cork 1080, a front-side stale-fish 540, a double McTwist 1260 and the
much-anticipated front-side double cork 1260, becoming the only person to have landed the trick in competition. The phenomenal run earned a perfect 100 as the judges failed to find a single flaw in it.
“It's unreal,” White said after his third run. “I've been wanting that 100 forever. Thank you so much, everybody, tonight. I came here on a mission: I couldn't compete in Slope and it kind of broke me. I didn't know what to do. I was sitting around icing my
ankle wondering if I could even ride tonight, and I kind of took out a little bit of that anxiety and anger that I couldn't compete in Slope in the pipe tonight.”
Anyone who saw White land the monumental run would definitely be replaying it in their minds for the next few months. It is hard to imagine how he or anyone else would be able to come up with a battle run. While the snowboarding fans sit in confusion, White
believes it will eventually happen as even after earning a perfect score, there is always room for improvement in the sport due to its progressive nature.
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