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The Evolution of Shaun White Explained

See how he's changed over the years

Like Madonna or Barbie, the icon that is Shaun White has gone through many incarnations over the course of his lengthy career.

From baggy-trousered boy wonder to Motley Crue-style snowboard superstar to budding rock god in his own right, sometimes it can seem hard to keep up with him!

But here’s a run down of the many stages of Shaun White.

1) Boy Wonder Shaun (c.1994-98)

Shaun starts out as a likeable child prodigy with freckles. Look, he plays with mice and everything! Awww…

2) I Can Skateboard Too Shaun (c. 1999-2004)

Yep, despite ripping him in the intro to the Shaun White Album movie, Tony Hawk helped teach Shaun to skatw. Turns out he was pretty good at that too.

3) Flying Tomato Shaun (2006)

Shaun rocks up at the Turin Olympics and casually wins a gold medal at the first time of asking. This was just a victory lap. You-Ess-Ayy!! You-Ess-Ayy!!

4) Nah-neh-nah-neh-nah-nah Shaun (2007)

In case his constant winning wasn’t irritating enough, Shaun rubs it in by getting gold in the summer X Games too.

5) Can’t Touch This Shaun (2010)

Vancouver 2010 sees another Olympic gold in the bag. By this stage Shaun White is literally untouchable. MC Hammer would be proud.

6) High Flying Shaun (2011)

He promptly goes and wins another X Games gold in skateboarding the following year, although his victory is marred somewhat by the growing of a highly questionable ‘tache…

7) Tighty Whitey (or Zebra Print) Shaun (2012)

By the time of the next winter X Games, Shaun’s questionable taste has spread from his ‘tache to his trousers. Not that it stops him winning of course…

8) Shorn Shaun (2013)

Shaun takes the radical decision to cut his hair. Unlike Samson, it doesn’t seem to weaken his powers at all. But by now the rest of snowboarding is seriously pissed off with him winning the whole time…

9) The Artist Formerly Known as the Flying Tomato Shaun (2014)

By the time the Sochi Olympics rolled around Shaun, now 27 years old, was desperate to ditch the media moniker ‘the Flying Tomato.’ You can kind of see why.

The rest of the world meanwhile had been doing its damndest to catch up with him for four years. And finally, in the final, it worked. For the first time he walked away without a medal round his neck…

10) I’d Rather Be A Rockstar Anyway Shaun (2015?)

At some stage between 2010 and 2014, Shaun White joined a band. Having failed to get the medal he wanted, he put out a cryptic statement that seemed to announce his retirement and is now apparently more likely to be seen with a guitar in his hand…

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