Four years ago, he was a rising action sports star with a nickname as fiery as his trademark shock of red hair: The Flying Tomato.
As Vancouver approaches, the reigning Olympic halfpipe champion is no longer simply a star, but an icon. And in the wake of Torino's success, the nickname has flown away - a clear reflection of exactly how much has changed. "I think from me four years ago until how I am going to be in Vancouver, the full four years, I think I am night and day of a person,"Shaun White says.
How exactly have things changed? For starters, there's that whole icon thing. From his humble beginning - two heart surgeries at a young age and his family sleeping in a van to save money at his early snowboarding events - White has become an empire. The first athlete ever to win Winter and Summer X Games titles thanks to a skateboard vert crown in 2007, White earned $9 million in endorsements in 2008, according to Forbes. And though he doesn't have the nationwide, single-name recognition of a LeBron or Kobe, among his action sports peers (and with all due respect to legendary Olympic hopeful Shaun Palmer), these days, the word Shaun alone can only mean one person.
In strict accordance with other individuals carrying single-name status, Shaun White lives a dynamic life. Once a kid who slept in the family van, he is now the owner of a Lamborghini. His traveling life is a dizzying succession of parties and events that White sums up by saying, "It is madness." For perspective on just how mad things have become, White currently considers L.A. something of a sanctuary. "I can cruise up here and feel pretty normal," he says. (As Jeff Foxworthy would say, you might be a celebrity if Hollywood becomes the place you go to blend in.)
Outwardly, White is energetic and quick to smile, but adjusting to notoriety has been a significant challenge. "It has been strange," the 23-year-old California native admits. "I mean, there is a couple of things that you have got to deal with once you get to a certain level of success, I guess. For me it has just been one of those things, I am pretty recognizable. I walk through the airport or something, you are going to spot me right away." And that recognition has escalated to the point where it's hard for a meal to pass without someone spotting the red-haired, two-sport sensation. "You are at dinner with the family and you are getting approached by people. And, I mean, my family loves it. They are like, ‘Oh, those kids want your autograph!' I am like, ‘I know, I have seen them. They will come up in a minute, just give it time," White says, laughing.
In addition to an elevated Q rating, the Olympic halfpipe king has also had to adjust to rising challenges in his competitive domain. Though he remains the man to beat in Vancouver, White has lost multiple times in recent years, most notably to teammates Steve Fisher and Kevin Pearce. And while Fisher (who beat White at the 2007 X Games) admits that "Honestly, I think I got really lucky that day," the 22-year-old Pearce has become an eminent threat. The emerging halfpipe star from Vermont defeated White at the Burton European Open in 2008 and 2009, and narrowly missed another win at the 2008 X Games. "[Shaun] was always the one there, the one that I look up to, the one that kind of had more tricks to me, that was always beating me," Pearce says. "And, you know, definitely over the years it's kind of starting to even itself out, especially these last two years."
What still hasn't evened out - or leveled off in any way - is White's immense force of will. "What is driving me now? Ah, man, how much time do we have?" he asks. "Because I could go on forever. I mean, what drives me now is the fact that I feel like I still have so many tricks that I want to learn and so many things that I can still do. And so many cool things outside of sports that I have been doing."
Among the tricks White has been learning (or more accurately, perfecting) is his signature cab double cork 1080, a dizzying combo of three spins and two off-axis flips. That progressive maneuver looks like a certainty to be part of his arsenal in Vancouver, where he'll attempt to break yet another piece of ground as the first two-time Olympic halfpipe champion in snowboarding's relatively brief history.
As for the "cool things outside of sports" he mentions, one was an enlightening trip to Africa. "That was one of those things where I was doing some commercials and some spots on television about African relief, and I just don't believe in kind of saying and supporting something that I didn't really know much about ... it felt awkward to me," White says. "So I am like, you know what, I am going to do this commercial, I am going to do these things and say these things, and then I am actually going to go."
Taken alone, those final words resonate like a life-defining mantra: I am actually going to go. His personal landscape has changed, and new challenges have surfaced, but Shaun White has somewhere to go this February. And if you believe what you've seen from his storybook life thus far, chances are he's going to get there.
