Youth reigned at the Torino Winter Olympics, with nineteen-year-old Shaun White and fellow American nineteen-year-old Hannah Tetter showing the old folks how it’s done in the half-pipe. Blowing minds with their outstanding performances, apart from small (yet completely understandable) exhibitions of last minute jitters, these teen sensations looked every bit the goods as they proceeded to mop the floor over the world’s most respected seasoned competitors. So was it just as easy and comfortable as they made it look? Well, not exactly. Although both have been honing their amazing skills for years (White has been under the microscope since being marketed as a skate/snow prodigy by spono Volcom from the age of nine, Teter grew up with four snowboarding brothers that pushed her riding level to head-turning degrees from her early teens) neither had experience the public scrutiny and attention bestowed their way at Torino –and they both handled it uniquely.
On a clear Alpine afternoon blanketed with the purity of snow and sport, the Winter Olympics' new cover girl did the strangest thing imaginable. Before snowboarding for gold, Hannah Teter snowboarded for fun. During the short break between the qualifying and final sessions of the women's halfpipe Monday, while clinging to a lead, she ran for the hills. Assured nobody was looking, she persuaded U.S. team-mate Gretchen Bleiler to join her on an empty ski lift, which they rode to the top of the mountain with their boards, then climbed off. There were guards everywhere.
"I'm like, 'Uh-oh,' " Teter said. There were rope barriers everywhere. "I was like, 'Gretchen, we are doing this,' "she said. They carefully hiked out of sight, slipped under the ropes, jumped on their snowboards, and were gone. "Shaved some powder," Bleiler said. "Awesome powder," Teter added.
Down they went, snowboarding between the trees, around common sense, over safety concerns, down a steep slope until they ended up at the entrance to the halfpipe. Where, about an hour later, relaxed and laughing and kissing the camera and dancing in their boots, they did it all for glory.
Teter won gold, Bleiler won silver, and America had its new, um, teen ice queen. "Yeah, well, yeah, hmmm, I don't think I'll change," said Teter, 19, her smile nearly bursting into laughter at the thought. She was leaning back in her baggy, white pinstriped sweat suit. A flag-patterned kerchief was wrapped around her neck. Her iPod headphones were finally out of her ears. "Maybe smile a little bit brighter. Get my teeth whitened for the cameras. Definitely have to bring my [hair] straightener everywhere I go," she added sarcastically. But she wasn’t the only teen to bring home gold from Torino –or the only one concerned about image.
Cathy White stayed up late Saturday night before Torino, sewing together an American flag bandana so that her son would not have to ruin any more T-shirts. For years, Shaun White ripped off T-shirt sleeves and used them to cover his face, in part because he wants to prevent sunburn and in part because he likes the persona they help create. But when White showed up at the halfpipe Sunday morning with his patriotic new style, he went from being a cult favourite to becoming an Olympic model. At first, all the flags were too much. On White's opening run, he looked at the crowd more than the pipe. He stumbled on the lip of the ramp. He acted nervous and he appeared vulnerable.
Standing at the base of the mountain, he told reporters that he felt "all weird and Olympic-y." While many athletes deny their nerves, the 19-year-old White accepted them and channelled them. Turning anxiety into energy, he won the gold medal in the men's halfpipe competition and then proceeded to wreck his cool-kid image when he wept at the medals ceremony Sunday evening in downtown Turin.
Four years after the American men swept the halfpipe competition in Salt Lake City, they were in ideal position to do it again. White came back after tripping in his first qualifying run. Danny Kass came back to win the silver medal after falling in his first final's run. But Mason Aguirre, who seemed the steadiest of all, stumbled on his last ride and was edged by Finland's Markku Koski for the bronze. Even though the Americans did not get the sweep, they might have accomplished something more significant, introducing snowboarding's first mainstream celebrity. Around extreme sports, White has long been compared with Tiger Woods, the ultimate athletic prodigy. But White's performance in Sunday's halfpipe competition was the equivalent of Woods at the 1997 Masters, justifying all the hype to people who wouldn’t have previously had the foggiest idea about snowboarding or White.
The gold-medal ride was emblematic of White's grace - the way he glided over the snow, the way he held his board dramatically in mid-air, the way he bled consecutive 1080-degree spins into consecutive 900-degree spins, as if they were all part of the same move. The coach of the United States team, Bud Keene, said of White's ride: "It's like he was skating."
Snowboarding and figure skating do not share many qualities, but White is aiming for some more overlap. Shortly after taking the gold, he set his sights on U.S. figure skater Sasha Cohen, using his news conference to ask for a date. "I'm hoping Sasha Cohen dates gold medalists." White said. Then he acted out his potential pick-up line. "You do a 1080? Yeah, so do I."
But for all his bravado after his win, the sports world, which always likes to see its superstars challenged, must have licked its lips when White finished seventh in the first qualifying round, initially failing to make the finals. But as the crowd entered a panic, Keene took White on a casual ride around the mountain, just like Teter, which made him feel as though he were back in Big Bear, California, where he learned to snowboard with his parents, his brother and his sister.
The joyride was supposed to remind White how comfortable he can feel in the snow. On the chairlift going to the top of the halfpipe, White said he asked one of his teammates, Andy Finch: "Can you believe this is our job?"
White's theory on snowboarding is that a poor ride always portends a great one, so by his logic, he was due. When he earned 45.3 points on his second qualifying run, clinching a berth in the finals, he dropped to his knees and playfully wiped the brow of his helmet. Then he earned 46.8 points on his first run of the finals, effectively ending the competition. "I can't remember being so nervous," he said.
With first place secured, White's last ride amounted to a victory lap. He thought about cruising straight down the pipe with both arms raised. He thought about performing some of his leftover tricks. But instead, he landed a couple of jumps and then slashed his way around the ramp, looking exactly like a kid in a skateboard park.