Snowboarder Shaun White withdraws from Olympics slopestyle event

SOCHI, Russia -- The Olympics, in an continual effort to reinvent itself and stay relevant, is willing to try just about anything to connect with a younger audience.

Its latest try already has gotten the attention it hoped for but not in a good way. A course labeled dangerous by some competitors but, no doubt, good for television already has led to the withdrawal of one of the United States’ most celebrated athletes.

The sport is slopestyle, a combination of jumps and acrobatics contested downhill on increasingly large jumps, all done on a snowboard.

Shaun White, a snowboarding legend known as “the Flying Tomato” because of his once-flowing red mane, withdrew from the competition, which starts Thursday. It’s a precursor to the Games, which officially start with the opening ceremony on Friday in this summer resort town, hoping to become an attractive winter destination.

White, who called the course at Rosa Khutor Extreme Park “intimidating,” pulled out of the competition Wednesday citing the risk of injury. This follows the withdrawal of Norwegian medal hope Torstein Horgmo, who crashed and broke his collarbone Monday.

One day later, a Finnish female snowboarder was taken off the course on a stretcher, also exiting the competition.

All of this followed a curious turn of phrase a few weeks ago by NBC studio host Bob Costas, who compared the sport to the MTV show, “Jackass,” saying the president of the IOC should be Johnny Knoxville.

White’s withdrawal came a day before slopestyle snowboard qualifying starts. Slopestyle skiing, a different version done on skis, comes later in the Olympics

“With the practice runs I have taken, even after course modifications and watching fellow athletes get hurt, the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on,” White said.

White is a medal favorite in the halfpipe.

White’s withdrawal removes quite a bit of the event’s star power. His move was ripped by two Canadian snowboarders who both called him out on social media.

Tweeted Sebastien Toutant (@sebtoots): “Mr. White... It’s easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can’t win...”

Toutant’s teammate, Maxence Parrot (@MaxParrot) was just as harsh, tweeting; “Shaun knows he won’t be able to win the slopes, thats why he pulled out. He’s scared!”

White expressed concerns about the course Wednesday, joining other concerned participants.

“It’s been interesting to see how it’s developed and changed over the past few days,” he said. “I guess the big question is if it will continue to change. Every day they have the riders’ meeting, they get feedback. Sometimes there’s changes, sometimes there’s not.”

The big difference between, say, the X Games, and this particular course is that there are three jumps at the Olympics, rather than four. For the uninitiated, a slopestyle course consists of a series of jumps and obstacles, navigated with a series of flips, spins and other acrobatic maneuvers.

“People are doing gnarlier stuff and more creative stuff, which is sick to see,” American Sage Kotsenburg said. “You used to make it through the rails, and the jumps is the main show. But really it’s 50-50: You’ve got to have sick rail tricks that are unique and creative and then have really creative big jump tricks.

“We do not want to see gymnastics on a snowboard. It does not look nearly as good. We want to keep snowboarding cool and fresh. …You’ve got to add your own flair and not become robots.”

The angst over the intimidating course is not universal. Kotsenburg, White’s teammate, said the course was not dangerous, and Canadian Mark McMorris, who is trying to push forward despite suffering a broken rib less than two weeks ago at the X Games, said it was a different course but not dangerous.

“Snowboarding is dangerous,” he said, adding, “like crossing a street is dangerous too.”