Shaun White Drops Out of Slopestyle Event in Sochi

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White, who has won gold in the half-pipe event at the last two Winter Olympics, announced Wednesday he will not participate in the new slopestyle event in Sochi due to risk of injury.

Image: ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP/Getty Images

By Kurt Wagner2014-02-05 09:05:58 -0600

Olympic snowboarder Shaun White may be extreme, but he's also extra cautious.

The two-time Winter Olympics gold medalist announced on Wednesday that he will not participate in the new slopestyle event in Sochi, citing a "potential risk of injury" as his reason. White's announcement was included as a statement given to Today.

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Instead, White will focus exclusively on the half-pipe competition, in which he has earned gold medals the past two years.

In the slopestyle event, competitors perform a handful of tricks on a course that includes rails, boxes and jumps. It is new to the Winter Olympics this year; the event starts on Thursday.

“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA,” White told TODAY. “The difficult decision to forego slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of [...] 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."

The slopestyle course, officially known as the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course, has been criticized for being too dangerous. Multiple athletes have already been injured on the course, including White, who jammed his wrist during a practice run Tuesday. Torstein Horgmo, a snowboarder and an expected medal contender from Norway, broke his collarbone Monday on the same course.

Another snowboarder, Merika Enne of Finland, had to leave the course on a stretcher Tuesday after a crash, according to the New York Times .

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Topics: halfpipe, shaun white, slopestyle, snowboarding, Sports, U.S., US & World, winter olympics