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Competition is strong, but USA's Shaun White says best run is to come at Winter Olympics

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Qualifying kicks off here at Phoenix Snow Park on Tuesday, with the 31-year-old snowboarding icon looking to return to the Olympic podium.
PYEONGCHANG, South Korea — Snowboarder Shaun White was nothing but congratulatory toward his main challengers, noting the difficulty in how each rides. With both Japan’s Ayumu Hirano and Australia’s Scotty James, White said he’s impressed.
If there’s more there, White didn’t say. But it’s those two riders who likely most stand in the way of White getting back atop the podium.
Qualifying kicks off here at Phoenix Snow Park on Tuesday, with the 31-year-old snowboarding icon looking to return to the Olympic podium.
White, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, finished a disappointing fourth in Sochi and in his fourth Games looks to go head-to-head with Hirano and James on some of the toughest tricks in the halfpipe.
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“I don’t think we’ve seen my best run,” White said. “I definitely have a couple things in mind that I’ve been working on that I’d like to iron out and here’s the time to basically do it and try to put it in my run.”
While Hirano and James have the big tricks, they also have the consistency to challenge White.
Hirano, 19, was a top contender in the sport before he won silver in Sochi. He has three X Games medals, including winning last month with White not competing.
James, meanwhile, is only 23 but competing in his third Olympics. After a growth spurt that shot him up to 6-3 — unusually tall for halfpipe riders — James has gone from also ran to contender in the past three seasons.
He won X Games a year ago before finishing second to Hirano this year. Last year, he won the test event here while White was second.
“It’s a healthy round of competition at this point in time,” James said. “I’m just grateful that I’ve got another big competition to hopefully be standing on top.”
Each of the three riders has massive tricks that could help get him there.
Hirano, who is known for his amplitude, became the first rider to land back-to-back double cork 1440s in the halfpipe in his winning X Games run.
For his part, White has landed both variations of the trick that Hirano has but not in succession in a run.
“I’m excited to compete with him cause he’s really pushing it,” White said. “You saw at X Games he did an amazing combination that I’ve been working on as well. I’m just impressed.”
James, meanwhile, is doing the most technical trick in the halfpipe. In Snowmass last month, he became the first rider to land a switch backside double cork 1260.
The trick requires James to ride in his unnatural stance with his backside to the wall and launch into two off-axis flips and three-and-a-half rotations.
“It has tested me the most as a person, as a rider as I’ve ever been in my life,” James said.
Former pro snowboarder Todd Richards, now an analyst for NBC, compares it to doing something left handed that a person has done right handed his whole life. But even that comparison doesn’t capture how difficult it is to ride that way.
“It takes years of being able to wrap your mind around how to be able to re-program your body to respond to the same motions that are just so natural when you’re riding in your regular stance,” said Richards.
“A backside 1260 is nothing to sneeze at in the halfpipe these days, and a switch backside 1260, complete opposite-minded thinking. That’s why that trick is so incredible. There’s not anybody else that does it. And there’s a reason that not anybody else does it, because it’s dangerous and because it takes a lot of time, dedication and slamming on your head.”
Richards said James’ biggest trick is more technical than the frontside double cork 1440 White did in the same competition, where he scored a perfect 100 to secure is spot on the team, because White is riding on his dominant foot and dominant edge.
“Scotty’s great. He’s definitely been one of those guys who’s taken his season last year and used it as this huge motivator to get pumped up and get ready for this season. He’s probably added like at least three new tricks to his run, which is difficult,” White said, noting he learned the double McTwist 1260 for the Vancouver Games in 2010.
“You get years and years of repping these tricks and you add brand new stuff to your run and it’s kind of this difficult thing where it’s hard to link tricks, it’s hard to put it all together. He’s doing a really great job of that, so I’m impressed.”
Regardless of who comes out on top, Pyeongchang won’t have a repeat Olympic champion after Sochi gold medalist Iouri Podladtchikov pulled out of the event because of a crash he had at X Games.
While several other riders could be in the mix for gold – including stylish American Ben Ferguson, who was third at X Games – it’s White, Hirano and James who head into the competition as the biggest contenders.
“It’s not just about one big trick,” White said. “It’s about the whole run.”

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