Shaun White Still King of the Pipe at Winter X Games

Shaun Whitewon his fourth consecutive pipe title at the Winter X Games. However this time it wasn’t as easy as before. Shaun had to work and had a bit of pressure going into his last run. White was looking quite stylish, wearing a black leather jacket and skin-tight pants. His snowboarding was just as cutting edge as White demonstrated why he’s the undisputed king of the pipe, even if he was battling a cold.

Before Sunday, White never really had to pull out the McTwist to come from behind and secure a win. Usually, he’s only brought it out for victory laps. But the trick was spot-on when he needed it most.

“I saw Lago just destroying it,” White told the ESPN broadcast. “I figured it was all or nothing. I knew I needed to stick the best run and went for it.”

With the victory in hand, White leisurely traversed the pipe on his final lap, spraying snow at the bottom.

White, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, cemented the win on his second run Sunday night, pulling out the Double McTwist 1260 in which he launches himself high above the pipe, then does two head-over-heels flips and 3½ rotations.

White has now captured 11 gold medals in his Winter X career and proved he hasn’t lost some of his snowboarding prowess.

Earlier in the week, the legend of White took a little ding when he washed out of the slopestyle competition, failing to qualify for the finals Sunday afternoon.

White won the slopestyle event in 2009 at Winter X, but his game slipped as he focused on the pipe in the lead-up to the Vancouver Games.

A young group of riders led by 18-year-old Sebastien Toutant has surpassed him, showing White just how much catching up he has to do in the event that tests a rider’s ability to handle a variety of terrain by rolling over rails, jumps and other obstacles.