Shaun White is Crazy Committed to Gold

Two years ago I was volunteering on ski patrol at the Winter Dew Tour at Mount Snow, Vermont.

I was stationed at the top of the super pipe for the men’s half-pipe competition, but my shift was for the practice session. There were a handful of competitors and they were all mostly between the ages of 15-30. One of those competitors happened to be Shaun White.

I remember sitting there thinking, “Damn, these guys just snowboard all day, every day, for a living and soak up all the media attention during events.”

Then I saw Shaun White walk up to the top of the pipe. I remember thinking, “this dude is going to crank on some tunes, have a couple of red bulls, BS with the cute mount snow employees and tear up the half-pipe with ease….”

But when he got to the top, I quickly realized I was wrong, mostly.

Once at the top, he simply sat down in a chair (barely making any hellos), strapped on his board, and dropped in the pipe for one of the most ridiculous run’s I’ve ever seen live.

When he finished that run, he came back up to the top and did the same thing. Said almost nothing to anyone and dropped in for a second run. He did this maybe 2 more times after that.

Meanwhile, all the other competitors were goofing around, talking to the fans and soaking up the media attention.

Well, this week Shaun White won a repeat Olympic Gold Medal in Vancouver and I imagine he did it with the same style I saw at the Dew Tour.

Total concentration.

No BS.

No Games.

Dead committed to be the very best at what he does.

Props to Shaun.

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