PARK CITY — Shaun White, the red-haired gold medalist from 2006, wanted to wow fans on his third and final snowboard run Saturday in the World Super Pipe Championships ... and he did.
It wasn't exactly the run he intended, but it was obvious he was there to have fun since he'd wrapped up the title on his first run in Park City Mountain Resort's Super Pipe. He called his third appearance, "A victory run."
And he did it all on what he said was a bad knee.
"I've got to go ice my knee. It hurts. I had to leave an event in Japan to see a doctor. Right now I've just got to get off the knee," he said as he limped away, only to be captured and surrounded by a herd of fans outside the finish area.
Torah Bright of Cooma, Austria, won the women's event on her second of three runs, and Kelly Clark of Mount Snow, Vt., was second.
Josiah Wells of Wanaka, New Zealand, won the ski portion. Tanner Hall, expected to be one of the top competitors, failed to show to compete.
The event drew 16 of the best male pipe snowboarders and nine of the best female boarders. There were 15 skiers.
Each competitor had three runs, with the highest run counting.
Snowboarders say they like the format because it gives them a chance to do more tricks, and if they mess up to fall back and rethink their next runs.
White said he dropped into the pipe on his first run and "kinda went for it. I'm glad we had three runs to mellow out and slowly step it up. I liked my second run more than my first, but it all goes to the judges," he said at the end of the event.
He scored a 93 on his first run. Mason Aguirre of Mammoth Lakes, Calif., was second with a score of 90.33, and third was Janne Korpi of Huhmari, Finland, with a 85.33.
White's second run consisted of a Front 5, a backside 900, two 1080s, a second 900 and a McTwist. He hit each maneuver perfectly, got big air off the lip of the pipe and made his landings without a wobble.
Runs like that are somewhat choreographed, White said, "but you can only do certain tricks out of a 1080 because of the way you land. That's all planned out, but at the bottom (of the 2nd run) I wanted to do something, but you kinda have to wing it when you get there."
On his third run, he said he wanted to get the crowd "pumped."
On his third run he went for big air, did a 540, a frontside 540, a McTwist, "and I was going to do a 1260 at the bottom to kinda wrap things up, but I thought I took off the wall a little weird," he said.
White became a hero of the 2006 Olympics when he won the super pipe gold.
The only local in this event was Louie Vito of Sandy. He finished sixth.
Under the Super Pipe glossary:
• McTwist is an inverted aerial where the rider performs a 540 degree rotational flip.
• 540 is where the rider rotates one and a half times in the air and lands riding forward.
• 900 is where the rider rotates two and a half times in the air and lands riding forward.
• 1080 is where the rider rotates three times in the air and lands riding forward.
• And the 1260 is where the rider rotates three and a half times in the air.
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