WINTER OLYMPICS:STEP ASIDE American Idol, America has a new idol. After a six year unbroken run at the top of the US television ratings, the ubiquitous talent show fronted by Simon Cowell was pushed into second place by a 23-year-old Californian with the showmanship of Liberace and the athletic grace of the Bolshoi Ballet.
Such is the power of Shaun White, who brought Vancouver – and the Vancouver Games – to life with a stunning performance to take gold in the men’s half-pipe snowboarding under floodlights on Wednesday night. Joy was unconfined – at the Cypress mountain complex, where the action unfolded; around downtown Vancouver, where the American’s successful execution of his signature move, the Double McTwist 1260 (aka the Tomahawk; aka the single most memorable moment of the 2010 Games) was greeted in the streets with high-fives of appreciation; and, it is safe to assume, with broad smiles among the Games’ organisers, who were hoping to change the narrative of a troubled first week.
Yesterday certainly did that, with the American skier Lindsey Vonn going for her second gold medal in successive days, in the women’s super combined, up on the hill at Whistler, and White taking his bow for a performance that reinforced the adage about never believing the hype.
Sometimes the hype is just not enough.
Ludicrous as the comparison between the raucous hipster-ism of snowboarding and the more sedate world of ice dancing is, there is every chance the American’s second of two runs down the half-pipe – the one that featured the Double McTwist (it is a double-flip, three-and-a-half spin manoeuvre for the uninitiated) – will live as long in the consciousness as the “perfect” Bolero routine of Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean in 1984.
Certainly the Californian, whose modesty is on a par with his desire to wear Savile Row suits on a daily basis, was in no mood to underestimate the importance of his success in defending a title he won at the 2006 Games in Italy.
“It was a historical day,” he said afterwards. “To have all the eyes on me and all this pressure and just so much going on. I can’t tell you how much I have been thinking about this. I haven’t been able to sleep out . . . I am so happy it is over and so happy to win for the US.”
The silver medal was taken by Peetu Piiroinen of Finland, with White’s team-mate Scotty Lago finishing third. But in truth the rest of the field might have been competing in another event. “It’s impossible to beat Shaun unless he falls,” Piiroinen said afterwards.
He did not fall – not even close.
A relatively safe – at least by his own standards – first run gave the American a decisive advantage and, as he stepped up to take his second, he had not been overtaken. In effect it could have been a ceremonial occasion. Instead he chose to make it a memorable one.
“Shaun’s a living legend with what he’s done already and with what he’s going to continue to do and really push this sport to the next level,” said the US Olympic snowboarding coach, Mike Jankowski. “It’s the all-American way. It’s being a pioneer and taking those steps into the unknown.”
For White it was a case of not letting all that hard work go to waste. He had spent months working on the Double McTwist at his own private half-pipe, built for him in Colorado by one of his sponsors, the drinks company Red Bull. He introduced it to the world at last month’s X-Games, where he almost seriously injured himself when he cracked his head off the edge of the half-pipe.
“When I was learning all these tricks I was taking crashes left and right. I was in surgery,” he said. “That was why I was so happy to come out and put it down. That last run was about going out there and taking my victory lap and showing everyone in the world what I can do.”
Of course, everyone in the snowboarding world already knew what the American could do. The same goes for most people under the age of 30 who have owned a skateboard, a snowboard or a video games console. Hence, the plethora of corporate sponsors seeking to attach their name to his – an arrangement that has already made White a wealthy young man.
It is one thing putting his fellow snowboarders in their place but quite another doing the same thing to Simon Cowell. Mainstream superstardom is now inevitable, surely, although White has his eyes on a different prize. “We try to break the boundaries and see what we can do,” he said. “I think we’re just tapping into what is possible. I wish I could predict the future. We have to go create it. It’s a cool position to be in.”
