Shaun White withdraws from X Games Sunday Sunday Superpipe Final Snowboard

The real hype was ahead of expectation as Shaun White returned to the X Games Aspen tournament for the first time since 2017 in the men’s snowboard superpipe final on Sunday night.

However, in an unannounced news on his Instagram Sunday afternoon, White announced that he would be pulling out of the contest.

“I am ashamed to share that I am pulling out of @xgames today,” White wrote. “I pressed my knee during exercise this week and after talking to the medical staff, I decided that pushing through would only make matters worse. It’s a difficult decision to make, but I just have to give my knee some time to recover and I’ll be back soon. Many thanks to @xgames for inviting me and all their efforts to keep this event going in these challenging times. It was great to be back in the pipeline and I look forward to the next comp. I’ll definitely be looking to see what goes down tonight in the men’s half pipe. ”

White had told X Games guest Jack Mitrani this week that he planned to throw down some new tricks in the superpipe final. “I’m just pumped on horseback,” he said. “I’m excited to be here. If I feel, maybe I’ll try to throw new stuff. ”

In a video White tweeted from Saturday’s practice, it looked nothing but rusty in the pipe, with its width and tricks marked.

White’s latest snowboarding competition was his gold medal achievement at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics. He was set to compete in his first event in nearly three years at the Laax Open. last week, but he withdrew from that event as well.

“We decided not to compete at Laax because all the variables were traveling at Covid’s time,” White said on Instagram. “I decided to stay in the US and focus my efforts on X games.”

White’s most recent medal at X Games was his bagpipe gold in 2013. He holds the most gold medals in X Games history, with 15 (8 in superpipe, 5 in slopestyle, 2 in skateboard vert). He would have been the oldest athlete competing at the X Games Aspen 2021, at 34 years, 5 months.

With White out, seven riders will take on the men’s bagpipe competition on Sunday night. Australian gold medalist Scotty James is looking at three peats, with Yuko Totsuka of Japan, who won a silver medal last year, as his biggest competitor. In Laax last week, Totsuka entered James for gold in the men’s semifinal final.

Also competing in Sunday’s final are Chase Blackwell (USA), Taylor Gold (USA), defending Jan Scherrer (Switzerland), Ruka Hirano (Japan) and Joey Okesson (USA).

The men’s snowboard superpipe final will be broadcast at 8:30 pm ET on ESPN.