ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Shaun White’s final Olympic run is a half-court game winner combined with a Hail Mary touchdown with the feel of a bottom-of-the-ninth home run. When there’s no time left, no margin for error, nothing but victory or devastation, he somehow keeps coming through.
White fell in his first qualifying run attempting to reach the finals of Olympic halfpipe at Beijing, leaving him just one chance to avoid a humiliating early end to his final Games. But with all the pressure on him, with his own demons chirping in his head, with nothing left between him and the rest of his non-competitive life but one final race … Shaun White threw down yet another masterpiece.