Snowboarding legend Shaun White fumbled a jump on his first run at the men’s halfpipe qualifying competition on Wednesday, as he chases one last epic moment at his final Olympic Games.
He opened his run with 1080 jumps, before attempting his signature double cork 1260, a move he unveiled at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. However, he overbalanced on the landing and fell on the icy halfpipe, before skating down to the bottom.
White has two more runs in the qualifying, which will determine who advances to the final.
An icon of the sport: Beijing is the 35-year-old’s fifth Olympics, after he competed in 2006, 2010, 2014 and 2018. When he hit the halfpipe on Wednesday, he became the oldest male halfpipe rider from any nation in the history of the Games — and he has the chance to become the sports’ oldest Olympic champion.
Once dubbed the “Flying Tomato” because of his flowing red hair, White is one of the sport’s most iconic figures. Even if he doesn’t win gold, taking home any medal will make White — already a three-time gold medalist — the most decorated men’s snowboarder ever.
Ahead of his competition, White said that he would retire after the Games, citing a spate of injuries.
“I won’t be worried about some kind of competition,” he told reporters last week. “I’ll just purely be here to enjoy the resort, maybe check out other runs besides the halfpipe for once.”
Take a look back at Shaun White’s illustrious career:
