PYEONGCHANG, South Korea (AP) — Ayumu Hirano already has an Olympic silver medal back home in Japan. The budding snowboarding superstar didn’t plan on leaving Phoenix Snow Park with another one.
Yet it happened anyway because Shaun White happened, as he tends to do with the world watching.
NBCOlympics.com: From Torino to PyeongChang, watch all three of Shaun White’s gold medal runs
White’s scintillating final run in the men’s halfpipe final vaulted him past Hirano atop the podium for his third Olympic gold, relegating Hirano to silver for the second time in four years.