White achieved early distinction in both sports. By the age of seven, White had received his first snowboarding sponsorship, by the age of nine, he had befriended skateboarding legend Tony Hawk, and, by the age of 17, he had become a professional skateboarder. Nicknamed alternately “The Flying Tomato” and “Animal,” White has dominated both the Winter X Games and the Winter Olympics in snowboarding and won multiple medals in the Summer X Games in skateboarding.
Due to his massive success, White has achieved a great deal of popularity outside of the sports world as well. He has appeared in or been the subject of several video games, including Shaun White Snowboarding and will appear as the title character in an upcoming game that features him in skateboarding. White has been immensely successful in garnering corporate endorsements, earning millions of dollars from such sponsors as Red Bull, Target, Ubisoft, and Hewlett-Packard. White also helped give a different face to snowboarding in 2005, appearing in a documentary film about the sport entitled First Descent.
Shaun White's Career Achievements
White has been a dominant force in snowboarding. In the Winter X Games, he has won five gold medals in the Superpipe, including the last three consecutively, and five more in Slopestyle. With his additional three silvers and two bronzes, White has won a staggering 15 medals in the Winter X Games. He also has won four medals in skateboarding in the Summer X Games, including a gold medal in 2007, making him the first person to win a gold medal in two different sports in the Summer and Winter X Games.
With the emergence of snowboarding as an Olympic event, White has extended his dominance to the Winter Olympics, winning gold medals in the Halfpipe in 2006 and 2010. His win in 2006 was perhaps his most impressive, as he came back from being almost out of the competition, scoring a 37.7 in his first run to win the gold with a 46.8 in the final round.
