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Shaun White knew what he had to do to take home gold in PyeongChang and reclaim his Olympic throne, four years after a disappointing fourth place finish at the games in Sochi. The snowboarding legend went big in qualifying to assure that he would have the last word in the finals – and that’s exactly what he did.
White was sitting in second place behind Ayumu Hirano of Japan heading into his final run, the last run of any snowboarder in the 2018 Winter Olympics halfpipe.
Chasing Hirano’s 95.25, White was all but forced to match his opponent’s back-to-back 1440s to close out the competition, landing each trick and putting incredible distance between himself and the pipe.
In the end, White’s 97.75 was good enough for gold. It was the 100th gold medal in Winter Olympics history for America.
Here are final scores for the top ten:
- Shaun White, United States: 97.75 [Gold]
- Ayumu Hirano, Japan: 95.25 [Silver]
- Scotty James, Australia: 92 [Bronze]
- Ben Ferguson, United States: 90.75
- Patrick Burgener, Switzerland: 89.75
- Chase Josey, United States: 88.00
- Raibu Katayama, Japan: 87.00
- Jake Pates, United States: 82.25
- Jan Scherrer, Switzerland: 80.50
- Kent Callister, Australia: 62