Shaun White Biography

The Olympic gold medalist, snowboarder and skateboarder Shaun White was born in 1986 in San Diego, California. Despite some challenges at birth, having been born with a congenital heart defect, Shaun took to athletic endeavors with enthusiasm as a child, and in particular excelled on the ski slopes of Vermont. White rose through the competitive ranks at a staggering pace, drawing comparisons to the famous skateboarder Tony Hawk. Ultimately, it was Hawk who helped Shaun to launch a professional skateboarding career when he was seventeen, but it would be as a snowboarder that White would make his biggest mark.

Shaun White was selected for the United States Olympic team for the Winter Olympics in 2006 and 2010, and he took home the gold metal each time. He also became famous for his performances as the Winter X Games, at which he has won a medal every year since competing for the first time in 2002. In total, White has so far earned nearly twenty metals over the course of his snowboarding career, and he continues to compete. Most recently, Shaun White won yet another SuperPipe victory in 2013, and took the third place award at the FIS Snowboard World Cup in Colorado.

In addition to his achievements on the slopes, Shaun White has served in an endorsement capacity for decades now, having secured his first deals when he was still in elementary school. Shaun has represented such corporations as Oakley, Target, Red Bull, and Hewlett-Packard, to name a few. He also appeared in the documentary First Descent (2005), and served as guest editor of Snowboarded Magazine in its February 2008 issue. He also recently appeared as himself in cameo roles in the film Friends with Benefits (2011) and Cloud 9 (2012), and on the television series American Dad! Shaun also performs with the rock band Bag Things, as the band’s guitarist.
 
Most recently, Shaun White released his own series of video games, Shaun White Snowboarding and Shaun White Skateboarding, which have been enormously successful commercially.