Shaun White hasn’t lost a step on 4 wheels coming off a gold medal season on his snowboard. Rumors are definitely swirling if he will complete in the first ever Olympic skateboard park event at Tokyo 2020…little early to tell if he’s game but it would be a massive feather in his cap just to compete in the both the summer and winter games.
Here’s how the park event is described on Tokyo2020.org:
“Park competitions take place on a hollowed-out course featuring a series of complicated curves – some resembling large dishes and dome-shaped bowls. From the bottom of the cavity, the curved surfaces rise steeply, with the upper part of the incline either vertical or almost vertical. Among the attractions of park competitions are the immense heights achieved by climbing the curves at speed and performing amazing mid-air tricks.
The variety of tricks increases when the kicker ramp is used to gain height. The degree of difficulty can depend on whether the rider grabs the deck of the skateboard with a hand when performing mid-air tricks, which part of the deck is grabbed, which hand is used to grab the deck, and the posture of the rider while grabbing the deck.
Difficulty and originality also increase if the deck is rotated in mid-air, if the competitor is able to rotate their body while in mid-air, and variations on these types of rotations. Some competitors also perform balancing tricks on the ‘lip’ of the ramp.”
Shaun is better known as a halfpipe skater but his transition skills in the park are undeniable. Here’s a video from today of Shaun practicing bowl skating at the CA Training Facility in Soledad, CA. Interesting…
image from shaunwhite ig