2010 Winter Olympics: Shaun White, Freak and Superstar With an Unfair Advantage?

Shaun White is a freak.

He is in a class of his own and has achieved a difficult feat. He's become a legend by claiming his second consecutive Olympic gold medal—not bad for a guy who had open heart surgery twice before his first birthday.

After his first run in the 2010 Olympic halfpipe, he had set the bar so high that it may never be bettered. On their second run, those who dared believe they could challenge the great man faltered and fell by the wayside.

Those who dared believe that they could equal his effort on their second run paid the price with falls.

He could have sat out his final run. He could have cruised down the run with a relaxed victory lap—his gold medal was in the bag.

Still, you don’t get to the top of the heap by taking the easy way out.

The Flying Tomato threw down a near perfect final run in Vancouver landing his X-games winning 1260 McTwist to finish off a stunning run and pull out a score of 48.4 to move his unbeatable bar even higher.

And he did it easily. Where others show the strain of their efforts, White was effortless. He was smooth and fluid, gaining unbelievable height and performing dizzying rotations. No one else came close. He is an undisputed superstar.

In short, White deserves every ounce of adulation thrown his way.

But...

He has a hell of an advantage.

Apart from the fact that he earned $10 million last year, he has a private training facility that is in the wilds of Colorado, built for him by sponsor Red Bull. He can develop and hone his tricks in complete isolation whenever he likes.

Compare that, by way of example, to Aussie Ben Mates who has to drive courier vans and work in ski shops to support himself.

I’m not arguing that White doesn’t deserve everything he has. I’m just questioning how others are meant to compete with that. He has an immense natural talent that already sets him apart. These other privileges widen that gap to an insurmountable distance.

Still, there’s not a hell of a lot that can be done about it, and questioning it smacks of sour grapes.

Which brings us to the other matter to come out of the snowboarding.

I haven’t seen snow for nearly 40 years, and the last time I did see it, snowboards hadn’t been invented. Snowboarding isn’t something that is anywhere on my list of things to do.

Despite this, and after only a couple of days of competition at this Winter Games, I have become intimately familiar with the huge range of board manufacturers—names such as Gnu, Lib Tech, Kissmark, Flow and Burton.

How did I develop this knowledge?

From the logos and brand names that are emblazoned brightly across the boards, seemingly in direct contravention of the Olympic Charter.

By law 1.2 to Rule 51 of the charter, which outlaws conspicuous advertising, states that for equipment “any manufacturer’s identification that is greater than 10 percent of the surface area of the equipment that is exposed during competition shall be deemed to be marked conspicuously.”

It would seem obvious that most of the boards in competition are extending the middle digit to the Olympic Charter, and no one seems to care. I wonder if anyone can explain why this is.

I also wonder if anyone really cares any more.