Shaun White wins gold medal in men's halfpipe at 2018 Winter Olympics

Rachel Axon | USA TODAY Sports

Show Caption Hide Caption Shaun White is heading into Pyeongchang with new mindset American snowboarder Shaun White has learned a lot of lessons since his disappointing finish at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

PYEONGCHANG, South Korea – Shaun White is golden again.

Four years after finishing one spot off the podium, the iconic American snowboarder won the Olympic halfpipe final at Phoenix Park on Wednesday. Japan's Ayumu Hirano won silver and Scotty James of Australia took bronze.

White used a high-flying run with tricks he’d never even attempted in succession before to claim his third gold. With Hirano, now a two-time Olympic silver medalist, landing back-to-back double cork 1440s, White matched the tricks and coupled it with other huge hits in the pipe to win.

“I’m standing at the top, one run to go, the world’s watching, my whole family’s here, everybody’s cheering for me, and I just put it down,” he said. “Did what I knew I could do and what I’ve trained to do and it makes it all so worthwhile. I’m an Olympic gold medalist again. Wow.”

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White became the first snowboarder to win three Olympic golds, with his first coming 12 years ago in Torino. His medal also marked the 100th Winter Olympics gold for the United States, which has seen all four of its gold medals won here thus far claimed by snowboarders.

Unlike Vancouver and Torino – where he had victory laps after posting the winning score on his first run – White needed to bring his most difficult run on the final one of the contest.

He started with a massive frontside double cork 1440 – which is an off-axis trick that has him flipping twice and spinning four times – before landing a cab double cork 1440.

He’d never done them together, and the cab version of the trick had sent him to the hospital in an October crash that left him splitting his upper lip and requiring 62 stitches.

“I was in the pipe, so I knew that spirit of competition was going to help me get it done,” he said. “You could come up on any other day when all these people aren’t here and ask me to do that and I’d be terrified. Cause there’s no motivation, but when you’ve got the Olympics and you’ve got the dye on the pipe and the world watching, really there was no doubt in my mind I was gonna do the trick. I just had to land it.”

White scored a 97.75 to pull ahead of Hirano, who landed back-to-back double cork 1440s in his run to score 95.25.

James, meanwhile, landed back-to-back double cork 1260s in his run before hitting a technically difficult switch backside double cork 1260 to end it.

"It was amazing. The level of riding has been pretty exciting all year honestly,” said James, who medaled in his third Olympics. “They're all really tough, difficult tricks and we're all able to come out and put on a good show and do what we wanted to do here today.”

After winning Olympic gold in Torino and Vancouver, White finished a disappointing fourth in Sochi.

Since then, he’s changed his team and his outlook. He came into Pyeongchang with a more balanced approach to his riding.

“That last run, it’s just like all that hard work and all the injuries, the ups and downs and the decision to come back after all that, you just did it,” he said. “You cemented it in and I don’t think you could ever forget this day in the sport of snowboarding. I’m proud that I’m on top, and I don’t say that often about myself because I try to stay hungry for that next win, but I’m changing my ways and I’m really proud of myself.”