Just when you thought you’d seen the last of Shaun White’s face on the podium, the man himself told the American press yesterday that he’s “more motivated” to compete than ever before.
After strongly hinting at retirement back in March to focus on his band, White told the Wall Street Journal yesterday that he would “love to be there” at the next Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea in 2018.
“I feel way more motivated than I did before the Olympics”
“That’s the blessing in disguise [from what happened in Sochi],” White told Sports Illustrated Now. “It’s like that terrible scenario where you’re like, I remember that was the hardest time of my life, but this happened because of that. … It’s that moment, I just haven’t had enough time to pass to really see what the benefits are yet.”
Back in February, the two time Olympic gold medallist suffered a crushing defeat in the Sochi Olympics after he pulled out of the slopestyle event and then came a shocking fourth place in the halfpipe finals.
However, he insists he’s excited to get out and prove rumours of his retirement wrong. Not only that, but White will be taking on slopestyle once more.
“I would be lying to say I didn’t maybe bite off a little more than I could chew for this [past] Olympics,” White told Sports Illustrated Now. “I’m probably more poised to compete in slopestyle in the next Olympics.”
Come 2018, White will be 31 years old, by no means a spring chicken considering most snowboard competitors hover around the 20 year old age mark. But it doesn’t sound like that’s going to stop him.
Whether White will have what it takes to pull another gold medal out of the bag at Pyeongchang remains to be seen. But let’s just say, stranger things have happened.
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