by Allison Petkoff

Shaun White finished in fourth place in Sochi on Tuesday, February 11.  White had previously dominated half-pipe snowboarding by receiving the gold in the 2006 and 2010 Olympics.  White’s loss was a result of his poor final event, which was upstaged by Iouri Podladtchikov of Switzerland.  Podladtchikov took home the gold and as a result, dethroned White.

White started off the half-pipe snowboarding competition strong with minimal mistakes.  He made his way into the finals in a seemingly effortless way.  His first run in the finals is where the strife began.  He fell twice in his first run.  The second run added to the despair with two more slip-ups. We’ve seen Shaun have better days.  White agreed, “Tonight was just not my time.”

This was a surprise to America because earlier in the competition White decided to opt out of his other event, the slope-style competition, to focus on the half-pipe portion.  Fans expected White to dominate the field.  In addition, Olympic fans were disappointed in White because they believe that he took an Olympic hopeful’s place in the slope-style competition and then wasted that valuable place.  Others believe that White dropped out of the slope-style competition to avoid humiliation if he lost because he was considered the underdog.  Either way, Shaun White has plenty of criticism from his audience regarding his shortcomings this Olympic season.