Photo: Matt Heineman.

The first hit in Shaun's winning run. Photo Matt Heineman.

Shaun bs 900 on his way to victory. Photo Matt Heineman.

Oakley TM Chris Hotel, Shaun's brother Jesse White and Oakley European TM Lhasa. Photo Matt Heineman.

Danny Kass photo Matt Heineman

Photo John Stouffer.

photo Matt Heineman.

Andy Finch on the first hit. Photo Matt Heineman.

Andy Finch Photo Matt Heineman.

Vinzenz Lueps. Photo Matt Heineman.

The 66% sweep!
Story by John Stouffer with a little help from Mark Sullivan.

It was an amazing day filled with drama, upsets, and the ultimate victory for the one person who wanted it the most.

But it wasn’t a sure thing, and as they say: that’s why they play the game.

It started out another beautiful day in Bardonecchi at the resort called Melezet. The day started early for our TV crew. Fearing large crowds – it was a sold-out event – and much tighter security, we rolled in at 6:30 and had a quick breakfast. Then it was hit the books and get those last-minute facts that we needed.

Who built the pipe? Roberto Moresi, an Italian, who’s been working on it since 2003. It seemed like it had the best shape of the week.

How many competitors are there? 44 as compared to 34 in Park City, but only 12 would go to the finals, so technically this would be a harder contest.

How long was the pipe? 150 meters, and they added 20 meters to it to make it longer so riders would get more hits. With a five instead of four hit pipe, riders could get in four linked technical tricks in addition to the mandatory straight air.

Then it was up into the booth by 9 am, get the headsets on and start watching. Todd Richards and Pat Parnell were in place, and doing mock commentating, wondering who else could hear what they were saying?

The crowd was filling in, waiting for the 10 am start. Double D, Dave Duncan was on the mike at the venue with another European announcer, Zorin who was hilarious with his broken English, and everyone was cued up. Todd said it felt kind of like a Vans Triple Crown contest. Ha!

44 guys were seeded in a random draw, and Todd pointed out that it favored the riders who went later because of the natural tendency of judges’ score inflation. When we saw that France’s Mattieu Crepel was first, we knew that’d be tough for him because he’d looked strong all week in practice, but it’s tough going first. And his first run proved to be strong, including some nice big air with a 900, 180 and frontside 1260.

In fact, the first 10 riders featured some stacked talent, with Risto Mattila dropping fourth, Antti Autti dropping seventh, and Shaun White eigth.

Risto was looking strong. He competed in Park City and knows the Olympics, and had won a world cup pipe contest right here last year in this pipe. He busted out a score of 40.8 and took the lead.

All eyes were on Antti, looking to be the big challenger to Shaun White. He dropped in and threw down a strong, yet somewhat conservative run, forgoing the back to back 10s that he normally throws has for a 10 to seven combo.He bumped up his score up to 43.5. The gauntlet was thrown down, raising the bar for the following competitors.

Next up Shaun White. Big air first, then a spin and pow! Sketchy landing. Todd Richards freaked, but Shaun barely hung on and recovered for a sick run the rest of the way down. We had talked to the judges and control was the name of the game, and Shaun had lost it. Scores came in and he got a 37.7. We were surprised it was that high. He was on the bubble for the first round.

Format goes like this. Top six scores from the first round -- out of the 44 starters – get a pass into the finals. Then the rest go again, and the top six from the second round get the final 6 spots in the 12-man final.

The next ten riders dropped, and nobody was doing much, which left Shaun still sitting on that bubble until Danny Kass was up. He put together an amazing run, stomping back to back 10s, and took the lead with a 43.8.

Several other riders dropped, then the final two Americans went. First up, Mason Aguirre. He’s been on fire all week and threw down another great run, sliding into second place with a 43.4, only .4 of a point away from Antti. Shaun was now sitting in 6th place with his score, and anything higher would bump him into the second qualifying run.

Andy Finch dropped in and every one was wondering what the Pit Bull would do? He’s been injured for two weeks, and just started practicing like last Thursday. But you couldn’t talk about his riding as practice as he never tried his contest run, instead he focused on getting used to the conditions and shape of the pipe, busting straight airs and only a handful of spins the entire practice week. Well on this run he didn’t look injured at all, throwing huge slow spinning airs and stomping every trick including his gigantic inverted frontside spins. He posted the fourth highest score of the first round with a 43.1, and bumped Shaun to seventh. So Shaun would have to take another qualifying run.

And interestingly, in that run it’s the top six scores that go, which means you still have to do well. The only thing in his favor was that he ended up seventh overall in the first round, and the format for the second run re-seeds everyone in the order of their first-run scores from lowest to highest, so he had to sit through 37 other riders’ runs for his final chance at the finals and gold.

With three U.S. riders in the finals already, spirits were high, but there seemed to be some irony if Shaun ended up being the one guy who didn’t make it.

Rider after rider hit the pipe for their second qualification run, and standouts include France’s Gary Zebrowski and Finland’s Markku Koski who nailed their runs. By Shaun White’s run, he had to beat of score of 37 to get into the top 6. He dropped and actually backed off on the spins, but kept the airs monster, and nailed a 45.3, the highest score of the day! In making the finals, unfortunately Shaun bumped Giacomo Kratter out of sixth place. The Italian Stallion was out. Time to go make party.

The drama was set up. 12 men on to the finals. All four Americans. Three Finns. Big upset, though, no Japanese. All seemed to crack under the pressure. Let’s hope none of them try seppuku tonight.

A packed house was set for the final two runs. Here’s briefly how it happened. Finch crashed hard on both runs, just going for broke. Antti sketched out on his first run, then tried to make up for it on his second but couldn’t pull it off.

France’s Gary Zebrowski couldn’t top his qualifying round run, and ended up in 6th.

Shaun White stomped his amazing run- but one that was more conservative than those he did in the grand prix and unfortunately we never saw the backside 10 he first mastered at Mt. Bachelor. He took the lead with a 46.8. Markku Koski posted a big 41.5, stomping the most important run of his life. Mason followed that up with another stomped bag, and slid into third with a 40.3. Finally, it was Danny Kass’s turn, and he fell! So it was back to the second run, and with everything on the line, Danny pulled it all together with a air to fakie tailgrab, back to back 10s, back to back 7s, and a switch backside alley-oop rodeo.

It propelled him into the silver, bumping Markku to bronze and Mason out off the podium.

Mason and Markku both had problems with their final runs- leaving Shaun with the victory and the victory lap.

Shaun was at the top hugging his coaches and cheering, realizing nobody could beat him as he dropped in last, took his victory lap, highlighted by one of the raddest frontside 5s ever and two frontside slashes. Afterward Shaun said that he was just too stoked to ride. When he entered the finish corral, he was pounced on by Kass, the rest of the team, his brother, and family. The gold was his and the prophecy had been fulfilled. Shaun White had won the gold medal, while Kass took home his second silver in four years, and Finland’s Markku Koski took the bronze.

Americans didn’t get the sweep they were hoping for, but it was almost as sweet. Shaun started welling up when his brother Jesse embraced him at the bottom of the pipe.

They were presented flowers at the bottom of the pipe, with flags waving.

He and Danny sported American Flags as tunics tied around their backs, and the crowed continued to cheer at the end of a great, beautiful day. Kass somehow pulled out a life size cardboard cutout of Fabio, with a Grenade logo on it. Don’t know how he got it, but it was a classic Grenade marketing move. Love it!

By the way, it was the second gold and first silver for the U.S. at the Olympics so far.

In the press conference, Shaun talked about how the gold might help him pick up the figure skaters like Sasha Cohen and Michelle Kwan. He along with Danny met the girls at the opening ceremonies, and told them that they had something in common: “You guys do 1080s, and we do 1080s!,” he said to the laughing journalists.

Someone asked if the Americans were surprised that Markku was the bronze medallists instead of the favorite, Antti Autti? Kass answered, saying no, Markku was one of the first to ever throw a cab 1080 and “he slaughtered it today.” The reporter asked if he could repeat that, not quite understanding what Danny meant, and Kass replied again, much slower and more loudly “He slaughtered it today.”

The three medallists then headed out to get drug tested, then drove down to Torino to the medal ceremony. For us, the work wasn’t done. We still had a prime time show to put together. Pat and Todd had voiced over most of the contest as if it was live, but since we had time, the idea was to go back and watch and listen to the calls, and make sure everything was correct.

The crew behind the scenes continued to work on this well into the afternoon and evening. Re-voice over would start at 7, and go until it ends.

The good news is the show will be on prime time in the U.S., and we’re stoked. Aparently Bode and Darren didn’t do well in skiing, so NBC wants more snowboarding. We’re giving it to them!

1] Shaun White
2] Danny Kass
3] Markku Koski
4] Mason Aguirre
5] Antti Autti
6] Gary Zebrowski
7] Markus Keller
8] Christophe Schmidt
9] Vinzenz Lueps
10] Risto Mattila
11] Crispin Lipscomb
12] Andy Finch