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Team USA just misses snowboard sweep

Shaun White, right, of the United States celebrates his gold medal with silver medalist Daniel Kass. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Paul Hoynes Cleveland Plain Dealer
Shaun White, right, of the United States celebrates his gold medal with silver medalist Daniel Kass. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

BARDONECCHIA, Italy – The kid has style.

Shaun White overcame a bad first run to win the gold medal Sunday in the men’s halfpipe under a blue sky and bright sun. Then he did what any 19-year-old guy would do: He tried to figure out if a gold medal was enough to impress U.S. national figure skating champion Sasha Cohen.

“I hope Sasha digs gold medals,” White told reporters. “I could always say, ‘Hey, babe, what about this’ and show her my medal.”

Danny Kass, White’s teammate, won the silver and Finland’s Markku Koski took the bronze. The United States narrowly missed its second straight Olympic sweep of the halfpipe. Mason Aguirre, 18, finished fourth behind Koski on the final run, 40.3 to 41.5.

In the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, Ross Powers, Kass and J.J. Thomas swept for the United States.

White hit the lip of the pipe on a backside 900 and almost fell. He finished in seventh place with a score of 37.7. With only the top six riders from the round qualifying for the finals, White had to make the top six in the second qualifying round to have a chance at gold.

“Lots of guys have choked in that situation,” said U.S. coach Bud Keene, “but Shaun isn’t a choker, he’s a winner.”

Kass, Aguirre and Andy Finch advanced to the finals for the United States in the first round.

White had the best run of the second round at 45.3. It vaulted him into first place in the two-round, 12-man final.

“I just dropped in the pipe and did my thing,” said White.

White scored a 46.8 on his third run. It won the gold for him.

In the winning run, White did a frontside air, McTwist, frontside 1080, a cab 1080, a frontside 900 and a backside 900.

In his final run, Kass scored a 44.0. That left Koski as the only man with a chance to beat White. With the Finnish fans banging their feet on the metal bleachers and cheering for a miracle, Markku didn’t hit his last trick and scored 41.5. White, the last man to ride in the finals, stood at the top of the hill celebrating.

Under halfpipe rules, only a rider’s best score counts in the final two runs. Since White’s 46.8 was already better than Kass or Koski, he could have slid down the run on his stomach and still won.

“I’ve never taken advantage of the victory lap before,” White said. “I was going to ride right down the middle of the pipe, but I wanted to get some air.”