The durability of snowboarding, both as an Olympic event and a sport capable of lingering on the edge of the mainstream, can now be validated by its capacity for reinvention. It has been around long enough, and grown embedded enough in cultural consciousness, to facilitate second acts.
Shaun White was 19 and raggedy when he won his first gold medal, 23 and exultant when he won his second, 27 and corporate when he suffered letdown and arrived at a professional fork. Wednesday afternoon on Pyeongchang Halfpipe, White completed his competitive revival at 31 with a reinforcement and a declaration. He remains the unquestioned greatest snowboarder ever, and he is once again the unquestioned greatest snowboarder in the world, now with a magnificent final chapter.
White won the third Olympic gold medal of his career, placing himself among America's greatest Winter Olympians and defeating a loaded field by making the final run of the contest the best run of the contest. In his earlier Olympic triumphs, White could be assured none of his competitors had the ability to approach his best runs. That wasn't the case Wednesday, not against 19-year-old Japanese sensation Ayumu Hirano, Australian Scotty James and even countryman Ben Ferguson.
White stood on the top of the pipe for his third run trailing Hirano, who had posted a 95.25 in his second run, then fallen in his third. He was the last man on the mountain. He adjusted his goggles and dropped in.
