Men's Journal

All week, Men’s Journal editor GORDY MEGROZ will provide an inside look at the events, athletes, and parties that make up the Winter Games. In this dispatch, he scores a ticket to the men’s halfpipe finals—one of the hottest seats at the Olympics—and chats with Shaun White’s manager prior to his gold medal run.

Today was great for American athletes: Lindsey Vonn and Julia Mancuso went 1-2 in the women’s downhill and Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick won gold and bronze, respectively, in 1,000-meter speed skating. But since the Olympic events’ schedule was set, this day was always going to be about the men’s halfpipe and Shaun White. A ticket to the event was so hot, it was commanding between $1,500 and $2,000 from scalpers. That was partially due to the fact that Vancouver 2010 organizers decided a few days ago to refund about 20,000 standing-room tickets to the halfpipe events at Cypress Mountain. (The official reason for this is that the standing-room area has lost so much snow over the past week, organizers felt the footing was too slick with mud and dangerous for spectators to stand on. But the conspiracy theory circling the Games is that, after people waited hours trying to get bussed to and from Cypress for the moguls events, organizers simply decided to cut back on the number of bodies, making life easier on those who paid for grandstand tickets—and easier on the Olympic staff.) But the main reason this event was so big was because it featured White, arguably the biggest name at the Games.

To get to Cypress from Vancouver, you need to take a ferry across the Burrard Inlet, then you load into the buses. None of this was quite the hassle everyone had been making it out to be, but it did take a long time—about two hours.

By the time I arrived at the halfpipe, the riders were taking their semifinal runs. I went to the X Games last year, so it hadn’t been long since I’d seen the best snowboarders in the world compete in the halfpipe, but I’m still in constant awe watching these guys—especially live. They look like gymnasts on snowboards. I took a seat next to Joe Prebich, White’s manager, and asked him what the game plan was. “Shaun just wants to stomp this first run and get it done,” he told me. “He knows he needs to nail the double, double [two front flips and three-and-half spins on back to back hits], but he knows this is his moment and he’s been working two years for this.”

With all the twisting and flipping these guys do, it was hard to tell if White pulled off the double, double on his first run, but whatever he did was amazing. The 23-year-old is just noticeably better than the other competitors—even to an untrained eye like mine. He’s so smooth, goes so big, and does such insane tricks, that it seemingly forces the rest of the field to try stunts beyond their abilities. Half of them end up crashing.

It was barely a contest as White ran away with it (American Scott Lago picked up a bronze medal). I asked Prebich what was next for the two-time Olympic champion. “He just wants to exhale and take a vacation,” he said. “You’ll probably see him at the U.S. Open [at Stratton Mountain, Vermont in March], but that will be it for this year.”