MAIN Sports Sports Stars Shaun White

a.k.a. "The Flying Tomato", the snowboarding and skateboarding champion with the famous shock of red hair was born Shaun Roger White in Carlsbad, California on September 3, 1986.

Although born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot (which later involved two open heart surgeries), young Shaun soon grew to become a strong and active boy who constantly followed older brother Jesse around. The two siblings later became inseparable while skateboarding around the neighborhood or romping around the slopes during the winter snowboarding season.

With an energetic desire for action and adventure, Shaun was only 7 when he began entering amateur snowboarding competitions. He went on to race past all comers and, with many more wins than loses, later turned pro at the ripe old age of 13.

Since then, Shaun White has grown along with the sport to not only dominate it, but to become the veritable poster child for the status of snowboarding as a serious sport in the US and around the world.

In 2003, White was the superstar of the Winter X Games winning the gold medal in the slopestyle and the superpipe, later taking the title of best overall athlete. A short month later, the 16-year-old became the youngest snowboarder at ever to win the US Open Slopestyle Championship.

If there was ever any doubt, his international status as king of snowboard was finally sealed with a gold medal at the 2006 Torino Olympics. Shaun has also since medaled every year he has participated in the Winter X Games, most notably taking home back-to-back gold medals in SuperPipe in both 2008 and 2009.

Not content with merely the slopes, White has also switched up snowboarding for a skateboarding when he joined skateboarding superstar Tony Hawk on his Gigantic Skatepark Tour in 2002. His pro debut came at the Slam City Jam in 2003, the same year he entered his first Summer X Games competition. He later medaled in both the 2007 and 2008 games.

Early in 2010, Shaun White took home gold at the 2010 Winter X Games and is now wowing the crowds in Vancouver by repeating his gold medal performance at the 2010 Winter Olympics with his signature Double McTwist as a member of the USA OIympic snowboarding team.

Off the slopes, White has starred in own video game, "Shaun White Snowboarding", and recently endorsed his own hip line of sportswear designed by his older brother and now manager, Jesse.

Romantically linked to guitarist and singer Summer Spiro (but with admittedly little time for socializing), White has been quoted as saying "I love to snowboard, but I don’t need my girlfriend to snowboard".

More about Shaun White around the Web:

Shaun White.com - The official site complete with bio, photos, personal blog updates, competition results list and medals won.

Shaun White - Athlete profile from the U.S. Olympic Committee with interesting facts & trivia, photo gallery, related news & story articles.

Shaun White - Wikipedia - Bio, career highlights, medal records, photos, related references and resources.

also see -> Winter Olympics 2010

Olympic Snowboarding