Nina Dobrev Shows Support For Shaun White As He Bids Farewell To The Olympics

etcanada.com:

Shaun White bent down to one knee, set his snowboard on its edge and raised his left hand toward the sky. The crowd, never huge to begin with in this pandemic era, had thinned to four or five dozen — most of them who knew him, or loved him, or had been around over the past 20 years to watch him take snowboarding on a wild ride to the Olympics and beyond.

They all cheered. Moments later, after working his way through a few more people who only wanted to touch him, Friday’s fourth-place finisher, his Olympic crown now worn by Ayumu Hirano of Japan, rode away from the halfpipe for the very last time. “I’m not sad,” he had insisted about 30 minutes earlier, even though the tears, the stifled sobs and the stories he told spoke of the melancholy of knowing this party really is over.

On a bittersweet day of riding that ultimately ended in a fall, White came one spot shy of a medal. It was nothing to be ashamed of considering the massive tricks going down in what surpassed the previous Olympics as the most progressive halfpipe contest ever.

It also was not exactly what he had hoped for. It certainly was not the fourth gold medal that, frankly, had felt like a dream given what he’s been through over the past few months.