It’s Official; Olympic Halfpipe Snowboarding Has Been Moved To Be Part Of The Gymnastics Program

It was only a matter of time but snowboard tricks are now referred to as how many "twists" and "flips" they contain, just like gymnastics and aerial ski jumping. Awesome!

Just this past week, El Blanco, otherwise known as the man with no soul aka Shaun White dropped a little video edit showing his latest and greatest trick, a frontside 1440 double, and here is how the press covered it:

via Globe And Mail:

"Shaun White’s adding a new twist for Sochi.

Well, half a twist, really.

On a video posted to a sponsor’s YouTube site Thursday, White shows the world the trick he’s been working on for the upcoming Olympics.

It’s a frontside double-cork 1440, which resembles his Double McTwist 1260 but adds another half revolution of twist inside the two head-over-heels flips.

“Just that subtle a change, it throws the whole axis of the trick off,” White told The Associated Press earlier this month. “It’s a completely different thing.”

White’s McTwist 1260 had been the most difficult trick on the halfpipe. He perfected it in the lead-up to the Vancouver Olympics and landed it on his second run at the games, using it even though he’d already wrapped up the gold medal on his first run.

He says he’s pleased with the 1440 and has no problem showing the competition what he’s got up his sleeve."

Yeah, I get that it's a bit hard for the general public to know what's going on without these kinds of descriptions but it's a damn hard pill to swallow. Next will be the announcers using the same terminology, mandatory "manoevers" and, uggh, I can't even bear to go on.

A sincere good luck to all the athletes heading to Sochi but please for the love of god go ride some powder as soon as you're out of the circus. Your soul will thank you.

And here's the video of Shaun: