Shaun White record breaker

Snowboarder enters record books at Winter X Games

He may only be 23, but Californian snowboarder Shaun White has smashed his way into the record books with an astonishing back-to-back gold run in the Winter X Games.

Having slammed his face into the pipe in an eye-watering helmet-popping crash mere moments before, White pulled the now infamous Double McTwist 1260 out of the bag in his final Grand Prix run at Park City.

Despite his eye-watering crash in a practice run, White was unfazed and spoke to cameras at the bottom of the pipe.  “It’s been a wild night for me. Hitting my head didn’t help anything, I’ve been seeing stars all night long,” he said.

Now in its 14th year, Aspen, Colorado's X Games, supported by extreme sports channel ESPN, is famed for its notoriously competitive nature and incredibly high standard, providing the world’s biggest non-Olympics stage for Winter Sports.

1999 saw skateboarder Tony Hawke become the first person in competition to land a 900 (a 900 degree aerial spin on a skateboard ramp), and in 2006, biker Travis Pastrana racked up a score of 98.6 with his double back flip – the highest score in the Best Trick competition at the X Games.

Past snowboard halfpipe winners Maelle Ricker and Luke Fisher will compete at this year’s event in Aspen. A whopping $1-million is up for grabs at this year’s event, a prize coveted by all 250 competitors.

However, whipping up an incredible score of 95.3 in the Men’s Superpipe Competition, White has pipped rivals to the post and landed himself the gold medal for the third year running.

In the Women’s Superpipe Competition, the US dominated the podium, with Americans Gretchen Bleiler, Kelly Clark, and Hannah Teter taking gold, silver and bronze.

With an incredible 16 Winter X medals under his belt, a record 10 of them Gold, and an unparalleled three-year run as Men’s Snowboard Superpipe Champion, White will go on to captain the US Snowboarding Team at the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver.

Dubbed “The Flying Tomato” on account of his flaming red hair, White will lead the team which includes double corkers Greg Bretz and Louie Vito plus Scotty Lago. Female Superpipe winners Bleiler, Clark and Teter will make up the women’s team

The US has dominated Winter Olympic snowboarding since it began in Japan in 1998, and White has high hopes for the 2010 team.

Read WideWorld's interview with White here