The king is dead. Long live the king. Of course, Shaun White’s defeat meant the crowning of a new Olympic gold medallist – Iouri Podladtchikov.
Whether the personable Swiss rider will go on to dominate the sport in the way White did is debatable. Not least because the silver medallist – 16-year-old Ayumu Hirano – is not so much nipping at his heels as gnawing them off.
But what is certain is that with White’s dominance over, a new and exciting era of competitive snowboard halfpipe riding has begun. What happens next will be very interesting.