Shaun White won his fifth consecutive gold medal in the X Games snowboard superpipe competition Sunday night, scoring a perfect 100 on his final run. White had already sealed his gold medal going into the third run, ahead of the competition with a score of 94. the 25-year-old then turned what could have been a lackadaisical victory lap into a record-breaking run, with the judges awarding him 100 points out 100 possible. the snowboard icon had six hits on the record effort, including a double-mctwist 1260 and closing with back-to-back double corks — one front-side and one switch-side. “It just felt perfect,” White said at a post-competition press conference. White’s run, judged better than any other in X Games history, came after a weekend where he had been plagued by an ankle sprain. due to that injury, he pulled out of slopestyle competition on Friday, limping off of the course. he spent the rest of the weekend icing the ankle, and skipped practice Saturday and Sunday. White said he spent the day leading up to the competition dunking his foot alternately in ice water and hot water. the injury and missing slopestyle, he said, motivated him to push himself in the pipe. “It was the hardest decision of this X Games,” White said of dropping out. “But I was able to do what I did tonight because of it.”  Chris Council/Aspen Daily NewsShaun White won his fifth consecutive gold medal in the snowboard superpipe on Sunday night before a packed crowd. White achieved the first ever perfect score in an X Games competition on his third run, after he had already clinched the winning position with a score of 94 on his first run. the win gave White his 17th Winter X Games medal and his 12th gold. Alongside his two Olympic gold medals — and the first-ever perfect score in X Games superpipe competition — the dominant performance helped quiet any doubts that he is still the best in the sport. some had viewed White as vulnerable to being beaten this year, because of the injury and also the rise of a European superstar: 23-year-old Iouri “I-Pod” Podladtchikov. the Russian-born, Swiss national this fall landed a switch backside double cork 1260 — essentially a backward version of the progressive trick that White himself invented only a few years ago. Podladtchikov had been expected to attempt it Sunday night, but didn’t. “I should have,” he said of the much-hyped trick at the press conference. “I just didn’t have enough juice tonight.” His third run was strong and included a backside double mctwist and a front-side double 1080, but his score of 93 fell short of White’s first-round score of 94. Podladtchikov said it was the best run he’d ever put together. the run was similar to White’s first, but fell short largely because he couldn’t match White’s amplitude. His hits averaged 12-feet-6-inches out of the 22-foot-high superpipe. White’s average was a full two feet higher. “I wish I had one more run,” Podladtchikov said at the bottom of the pipe. “I’m just getting warmed up.” he complimented White on his perfect-scoring run — believed to have been the first time a boarder linked two double corks in competition. but the up-and-comer said his new trick was on the way. “That’ll come real soon,” he said with a smile. the bronze medal went to Japan’s Ryo Aono, who landed the only backside 1080 of the night.

andrew@aspendailynews.com

Five-peat and a perfect score for Shaun White in superpipe

Tags: ankle sprain, competition press, games history

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