Olympia 2018: Snowboard: White is Olympic gold medallist in the halfpipe for the third time

Snowboard superstar Shaun White has won the Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe for the third time.

The 31-year-old American set the best score of 97.75 points in his last three rounds at Bokwang Snow Park and pushed the Japanese Ayumu Hirano (95.25), who had already won silver in Sochi, to second place. Bronze went to the Australian World Champion Scotty James (92.00).

White is the first snowboarder in history with three Olympic victories. Already in the qualification on Tuesday he had dominated the competition with 98.50 points. The 2006 and 2010 Olympic gold medallist, who missed the podium four years ago in Sochi in fourth place, had only reached the halfpipe record of 100 points in mid-January at the World Cup in Aspen/Colorado. For the USA, it was also the 100th anniversary of the USA. Gold medal at the Olympic Winter Games.

“I am overwhelmed with joy. I’ve been through so much to get here. I had this crazy injury in New Zealand, where I destroyed my face,”said White, who had to be sewn in the face with 62 stitches after a training fall last October and suffered a pulmonary contusion:”The same trick I had injured myself with at the time, I showed again today. That was one of the most challenging runs I’ve ever done.”

The competition was overshadowed by a heavy fall of the Japanese Yuto Totsuka in the second round. The 16-year-old collided with the edge of the superpipe after a jump from a height of about five meters and was transported away by rescue sled after minutes of treatment.

Johannes Höpfl (Hauzenberg) had the final of the best twelve as 23rd place. of the qualification. Sochi Olympic champion Iouri Podladtchikov from Switzerland had his participation because of the consequences of a serious brain injury in a fall on 28 September. January at the X-Games in Aspen.