Skateboarding At an early age White's skills as a skateboarder drew admirers. Professional skateboarder
Tony Hawk befriended the nine-year-old White at the
Encinitas, California,
YMCA skate park and mentored him, helping White turn pro in skateboarding at the age of 16. footsteps, White switched from skiing to snowboarding at age six, and by age seven, he received his first sponsorship. White has participated in five Winter Olympics in his career. At the
2006,
2010, and
2018 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the
snowboard halfpipe event. White has also participated in the Winter
X Games, where he has won a medal every year since 2002. Including all winter X Games competitions through 2013, his medal count stands at 18 (13 gold, 3 silver, 2 bronze), among which is the first quadruple win streak by a male athlete in one discipline, the snowboard slopestyle. White's streak was snapped in 2007 when he lost to
Andreas Wiig and Teddy Flandreau, with White taking the bronze. He won the Air & Style Contest in 2003 and 2004.
2006 Winter Olympics At the 2006 Winter Olympics, White won gold in the half-pipe. After his first run in qualifications, White was almost out of competition, scoring only 37.7. On his second run, he recorded a score of 45.3. In the finals, White recorded a score of 46.8 (50 is the highest possible score) to win. Fellow American
Danny Kass won the silver with a points total of 44.0.
2008 Executing a near-flawless second run, White captured his third consecutive
snowboard halfpipe title at the 2008 U.S. Open Snowboarding Championships to go along with his third US Open slopestyle competition. This followed White's win at the 25th (2007) Burton US Open, where he placed third in slopestlyle and first in the halfpipe. At the 2007 Open, White was also crowned the first "Burton Global Open Champion". His take for the event was $100,000 (Global Open Champ), $20,000 (1st Place Halfpipe), $90,000 (3rd Place Slopestyle), and a new
Corvette.
2009 in 2009 Controversy followed White's win on the 2009 SuperPipe at
Winter X Games XIII.
Kevin Pearce had five hits in the pipe, and all were the same tricks White did in his final run. White, on the other hand, had six hits and he started off his run with a big backside rodeo 540 where Pearce started his run off with a big grab. Although Pearce went bigger, he had fewer hits, and his first hit wasn't as technically difficult as White's first hit. Judges came to the conclusion that White deserved the better score because he started off with a more technical trick and he had one more hit than Pearce. With the win, White became the second competitor, after
Tanner Hall, to win a gold medal in the
SuperPipe in consecutive years at the Winter X Games. He also won a gold medal in Slopestyle, finally winning gold after two consecutive years of bronze. On February 14, 2009, White won the FIS World Cup Men's Halfpipe event at Vancouver's Cypress Mountain. Out of the gate in his first qualifying run, he qualified immediately with the day's best score of 45.5. With a thumb sprained on an over-rotated backside 1080 in the second qualifying run, White clinched the event with the first of his two runs in the finals. His first finals run was awarded the highest score ever in FIS halfpipe, a 47.3.
2010 Winter Olympics At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, White again won gold in the halfpipe. In the finals, White recorded a score of 46.8 on his first run, which proved a high enough score to secure the gold medal without a second run. He performed his second run anyway, as a victory lap, ending his run with a well-anticipated Double McTwist 1260 which he named The Tomahawk.
2012 At
Winter X, White became the first person in the history of the
Winter X Games to score a perfect 100 in the men's Snowboard SuperPipe.
2013 White won his 6th consecutive SuperPipe victory, making him the second participant ever to achieve this, with SnoCross racer Tucker Hibbert achieving his 6th consecutive victory earlier in the same day. In December 2013, he won the third place in the Pipe & Slope contest at the
FIS Snowboard World Cup in
Copper Mountain, Colorado.
2014 Winter Olympics White finished fourth at the
2014 Winter Olympics in the
Halfpipe event. During the winter games, he was the most talked-about Olympic athlete on Facebook.
2018 Winter Olympics While in New Zealand, training for the
2018 Winter Olympics, White crashed into the edge of a
superpipe; the resulting injuries to his face required 62 stitches. Despite the accident, White qualified for the 2018 US Olympic Team. On February 14, he won his third Olympic gold medal for the Men's Halfpipe event with a score of 97.75, with
Ayumu Hirano of Japan taking the silver medal and
Scott James of Australia taking the bronze. White was trailing Hirano by one full point coming into his last run with a score of 94.25. Despite this, White dramatically won the gold medal with back-to-back 1440s. His gold medal was also the 100th for the United States at the Winter Olympic Games.
2022 Winter Olympics White finished fourth at the
2022 Winter Olympics in the halfpipe. During the winter games, White announced it would be the last Olympics in which he would compete. Later, he announced it would be his final competition altogether. He received a standing ovation from the crowd during his final run.
Endorsements White has had a sponsor since he was seven years old. White signed
CAA Sports for representation after working with
IMG for eight years. Corporate endorsement deals include or have included
Burton Snowboards,
Oakley, Inc.,
Birdhouse Skateboards,
Park City Mountain Resort,
Target Corporation,
Red Bull,
Ubisoft,
Adio,
Hewlett-Packard, and
American Express. He is also a brand ambassador for
Krave Jerky and as part of their partnership he has developed and released his own flavors. In 2009,
Forbes magazine estimated that he had earned $9 million from his endorsements in 2008. ==Media ventures==