Shaun White facts for kids
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White in 2018
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| Full name | Shaun Roger White | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | September 3, 1986 San Diego, California, U.S. |
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| Height | 5 ft 8 in | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 154 lb | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Country |  United States |
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| Sport | Snowboarding, skateboarding | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Shaun Roger White (born September 3, 1986) is an American former professional snowboarder and skateboarder. He is famous for winning many medals in both sports. Shaun competed in five Olympic Games and won three gold medals in snowboarding. He holds the world record for the most X Games gold medals in snowboarding. He also won ten ESPY Awards, which are awards for excellence in sports.
Contents
Early Life and Beginnings
Shaun White was born in San Diego, California. He is the youngest of four children. When he was a baby, he had two heart operations because of a condition called tetralogy of Fallot. This is a problem with the heart that people are born with.
Shaun spent his early years snowboarding in the San Bernardino Mountains with his family. They would often stay in a van in resort parking lots to be close to the slopes.
Amazing Athletic Career
Skateboarding Success
Shaun White showed great talent in skateboarding from a young age. When he was nine, the famous professional skateboarder Tony Hawk noticed him. Tony Hawk became Shaun's mentor, helping him become a professional skateboarder by age 16. Shaun has said that he tried to impress Tony Hawk with his skateboarding whenever he saw him.
Shaun has won many skateboarding titles. He was the first person to win both the Summer and Winter X Games in different sports.
Snowboarding Journey
Shaun started snowboarding at age six, following his older brother Jesse. By age seven, he got his first sponsor. Shaun competed in five Winter Olympics. He won gold medals in the snowboard halfpipe event at the 2006, 2010, and 2018 Winter Olympics.
Shaun has also won many medals at the Winter X Games every year since 2002. By 2013, he had 18 X Games medals (13 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze). He even had the first four-win streak by a male athlete in snowboard slopestyle.
Winning Gold in 2006
At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Shaun won his first gold medal in the halfpipe. He had a great score of 46.8 out of 50 in the finals to win. Another American, Danny Kass, won the silver medal.
Big Wins in 2008
In 2008, Shaun won his third straight snowboard halfpipe title at the U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships. He also won the slopestyle competition. He was named the first "Burton Global Open Champion" in 2007.
Shaun also released his first video game, Shaun White Snowboarding, in November 2008.
X Games and World Cup in 2009
Shaun won the SuperPipe at Winter X Games XIII in 2009. This made him the second person to win a gold medal in the SuperPipe in two years in a row at the Winter X Games. He also won a gold medal in Slopestyle that year.
In February 2009, Shaun won the FIS World Cup Men's Halfpipe event in Vancouver. He set a new record for the highest score ever in FIS halfpipe with a 47.3.
Olympic Gold in 2010
At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Shaun won another gold medal in the halfpipe. He scored 46.8 on his first run, which was enough to win. He then did a "victory lap" run, performing a difficult trick called the Double McTwist 1260, which he called "The Tomahawk." This run earned him an even higher score of 48.4, setting a new record.
More X Games Records in 2011 and 2012
In 2011, Shaun won his fourth straight gold medal in the SuperPipe at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado. He scored 97.33, which tied an X Games record he had set the year before.
At Winter X Games XVI in 2012, Shaun made history again. He became the first person to score a perfect 100 in the men's Snowboard SuperPipe.
Continued Success in 2013
Shaun won his sixth SuperPipe victory in a row in 2013. This made him only the second athlete to achieve this at the Winter X Games.
2014 Winter Olympics
Shaun finished fourth in the halfpipe event at the 2014 Winter Olympics. During these games, he was the most talked-about Olympic athlete on Facebook.
Third Olympic Gold in 2018
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Before the 2018 Winter Olympics, Shaun had an accident while training and needed many stitches on his face. But he still qualified for the US Olympic Team. On February 14, he won his third Olympic gold medal for the Men's Halfpipe event with an amazing score of 97.75. He won dramatically with back-to-back 1440s on his last run. This gold medal was also the 100th for the United States at the Winter Olympic Games.
Final Olympics in 2022
Shaun finished fourth in the halfpipe at the 2022 Winter Olympics. During these games, he announced that it would be his last Olympics. Later, he said it would be his final competition ever.
Sponsorships and Business Ventures
Shaun White has had sponsors since he was seven years old. He has worked with many big companies like Burton Snowboards, Oakley, Inc., Target Corporation, Red Bull, and American Express. In 2009, Forbes magazine estimated he earned $9 million from his endorsements in 2008.
Shaun has also been involved in business. He appeared in video games like Cool Boarders 4 and Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder. He later released his own video game series, starting with Shaun White Snowboarding in 2008. He also released a skateboarding game, Shaun White Skateboarding, in 2010.
In 2016, he became a part-owner of several ski areas, including Mammoth Mountain, where he first started snowboarding. Since 2014, Shaun has also led the Air + Style festival, which combines music and snowboarding. In January 2022, he launched his own active lifestyle brand called 'Whitespace'.
Media Appearances
Acting Roles
Shaun White has appeared as himself in several movies and TV shows. He was in the 2011 film Friends with Benefits and the 2014 Disney Channel movie Cloud 9. He also appeared in the animated TV series American Dad! and the Nickelodeon show Henry Danger.
He was also featured in documentaries about snowboarding, like The White Album (2004) and First Descent (2005).
Music Career
Shaun plays guitar in an electronic rock band called Bad Things. He got his first guitar as a prize in a snowboarding competition! The band played at the 2013 Lollapalooza festival. Their first album came out in January 2014.
In 2013, Shaun also appeared in a music video for the song "City of Angels" by Thirty Seconds to Mars.
Print Features
Shaun had his first interview published in TransWorld SNOWboarding Magazine in 2003. He was also a guest editor for Snowboarder Magazine in 2008.
Personal Life
Shaun White has a well-known nickname, "The Flying Tomato," because of his red hair. He has also been called "Animal," like the character from The Muppet Show.
Because of his heart surgeries as a baby, Shaun has helped many children through the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Since 2008, he has granted 17 wishes for kids with serious illnesses.
Shaun White was in a relationship with Sarah Barthel from 2013 to 2019. He started dating actress Nina Dobrev in 2020. They became engaged on October 30, 2024.
Awards and Recognition
- 10-time ESPY award winner for Best Male Action Sports Athlete and Best Male U.S. Olympic Athlete
- Featured on the cover of Forbes magazine’s “30 under 30” issue in 2016
- Laureus World Sports Awards – Action Sportsperson of the Year (2008)
- ANOC Gala Awards 2018: Best Male Athlete of PyeongChang 2018
- USOC SportsMan of the Year: 2018
See also
In Spanish: Shaun White para niños
