Shaun White Withdraws From Sunday’s X Games Aspen Snowboard Superpipe Final

The hype was real ahead of Shaun White’s planned return to X Games Aspen competition for the first time since 2017 in the men’s snowboard superpipe final Sunday night.

However, in a surprise announcement on his Instagram Sunday afternoon, White announced he would be withdrawing from the competition.

“I am disappointed to have to share that I am withdrawing from @xgames today,” White wrote. “I tweaked my knee during practice this week and after talking with the medical staff, decided that pushing through would only make things worse. It’s a difficult decision to make, but just need to give my knee some time to recover and I’ll be back soon. Big thanks to @xgames for inviting me and all their efforts in holding this event in these challenging times. It was great being back in the pipe and I look forward to my next comp. I will definitely be watching to see what goes down tonight in the men’s halfpipe.”

White had told X Games host Jack Mitrani this week that he was possibly planning to throw down some new tricks in the superpipe final. “I’m just pumped on riding,” he said. “I’m excited to be here. If I’m feeling it, I might try to throw some new stuff.”

In a video White tweeted from practice Saturday, he looked anything but rusty in the pipe, with his amplitude and tricks dialed.

White’s most recent snowboarding competition was his gold-medal performance at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. He was scheduled to compete in his first event in nearly three years at last week’s Laax Open in Switzerland, but withdrew from that event as well.

“Decided not to compete at Laax because all the variables traveling during Covid,” White said on Instagram. “I decided to stay in the US and focus my efforts on X games!”

White’s most recent medal at X Games was his superpipe gold in 2013. He owns the most gold medals in X Games history, with 15 (8 in superpipe, 5 in slopestyle, 2 in skateboard vert). He would have been the oldest athlete competing at X Games Aspen 2021, at 34 years, 5 months.

With White out, seven riders will face off in the men’s superpipe competition Sunday night. Defending gold medalist Scotty James of Australia is looking to three-peat, with last year’s silver medalist, Yuko Totsuka of Japan, as his biggest competition. In Laax last week, Totsuka edged James for gold in the men’s halfpipe final.

Also competing in Sunday’s final are Chase Blackwell (USA), Taylor Gold (USA), defending bronze medalist Jan Scherrer (Switzerland), Ruka Hirano (Japan) and Joey Okesson (USA).

The men’s snowboard superpipe final will be broadcast at 8:30 p.m. ET on ESPN.