With his signature long red hair and laid back personality, Olympic Gold Medalist and Sports Speaker Shaun White is best known for his successful career as a professional snowboarder. At the young age of nineteen, White won his first Olympic Gold medal at the 2006 Winter Olympics for the Men’s Halfpipe competition in Turin, Italy. His second Gold medal was won in 2010 at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver and if history repeats itself, we are likely to see him win the Halfpipe competition at the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. Throughout his career, Shaun White has also won countless gold medals and set several records in the X-Games as well as the being the recipient of ten ESPY Awards.
Aside from snowboarding, Sports Speaker Shaun White is also a professional skateboarder. His interest for skateboarding peaked at a young age when he was noticed by the famous pro skateboarder Tony Hawk who took Shaun under his wing as his mentor.
Olympic Gold Medalist Shaun White has not only exceled in the world of sports; he has also become a successful businessman through endorsements and partnerships. His long list of current and former sponsorships include Burton snowboards, Hewlett Packard, Target, Mountain Dew, and T-mobile to name a few. Shaun has also secured partnerships with such brands as BFGoodrich, GoPro, Oakley, Kraft’s Stride Gum, and his own men’s outwear line which he created with Burton in 2007, The White Collection, which today also includes women’s outerwear, hardgoods, and an accessories line.
A survivor, Shaun was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, which resulted in him having to undergo two cardiac surgeries as an infant. Olympian and Sports Speaker Shaun White is an inspiration to aspiring athletes around the world and a prime example of a talented kid who turned his athleticism into an empire.