One of the most electrifying and multifaceted athletes in the world is a good description. Among one of the best extreme sports athletes of all time is another accurate depiction of the young man with the trademark freckles. No matter what your opinion is about Shaun White and extreme sports in general, he has proven to be a dangerous combination of youth, talent, and fearlessness. With Winter X-Games 11 right around the corner, you can check out the 20 year-old prodigy as he gets ready to strap in for what should be another breathtaking performance in Aspen, Colorado.
Shaun White started his professional career at age sixteen when he fell in love with the extreme sport of snowboarding. Considered by many as a red-haired little boy, White came out firing and soon proved to his critics that he was no fluke. Amassing eight total Winter X medals in the past five years, Shaun has been the most dominant snowboarder hands down. Apart from his professional career as a snowboarder, he also managed to fall in love with skateboarding and is now considered as one of the best vert-ramp skaters in the world after his silver medal winning performance at last year’s Summer X Games. Many of the professional skateboarders didn’t see White doing it for the right reason as they all thought he was just in it for the money and media attention, but they have since grown to love Shaun as he is still the only skateboarder on the professional circuit who continues to try and pull off the coveted 1080 spin.
As White has continued to mature and step his game up as both a professional snowboarder and skateboarder, his professional image has benefited greatly as the mass media has been there to follow his every move. Shaun has appeared on all of the late-night talk shows including Leno and Letterman, as well as having the honor of appearing on the cover of major magazines like Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone. Recently White has done a commercial for Hewlett Packard and also managed to get his own clothing line on the market with a contract and partnership with world famous snowboarding company Burton.
If there is anything more exciting then watching the red-haired kid grow as a celebrity and an entrepreneur, it is watching him perform at a professional level, and with Winter X right around the corner you can do just that. Being broadcasted live on ESPN and ABC, you can see Shaun White go for the biggest air and sickest tricks starting January 25th in beautiful Aspen, Colorado. I know I’ll be tuning in, will you?
Joshua Silcox is a freelance writer and can be reached at JS202403 -at sign- ohio -dot sign- edu (sorry, no urls are allowed in here)
