Canadian Riders Rip Shaun White After He Withdrawals From Slopestyle At Last Minute

Olympic favourite, in halfpipe anyways, Shaun White, aka The Flying Tomato – has pulled out of the slopestyle event at the olympics just one day before the qualifiers are set to begin. In the past few days there has been much controversy about the course design, both from the riders and the public, as well as several injuries as riders took to the course for practice.

Today.com reports:

"Snowboarding star Shaun White announced Wednesday he will not compete in the slopestyle event debuting in the Sochi games, citing the risk of injury associated with the course.

“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA,” White told TODAY in a statement. “The difficult decision to forego slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of.“

White’s announcement comes after he took a fall Tuesday and jammed his left wrist while on a practice run on the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course. It’s the latest in a slew of small injuries the snowboarder has experienced."

It should be noted that this is a bit fishy to say the least. Sure there seems to be some legitimate concern about the slopestyle course but this all lined up just a bit too perfect for Shaun. He's already stated that he basically regrets his decision to compete in slope years ago, he did not compete at the X-Games two weeks ago and now this. Seems to me at least that the dude is just deathly afraid of not winning something.

Says Susie Floros, Editor-in-Chief of Snowboard Magazine (via facebook), "Props to Shaun White for making a smart decision. That’s what happens when all the best contests in the world are built by Franke Wells and the SPT crew… yet they aren’t brought on to build THE contest course/pipe that all the contest riders have been working to get to for the past 4 years."

What can you expect when the whole event is being run by a SKI FEDERATION!

Spencer O'Brian (via facebook) another Canadian favourite for a medal on the women's side and one of the few women who were hitting the largest jumps in practice adds, "Sochi slope course "too dangerous" says the media, they went as far as comparing it to the luge athlete's death in Vancouver and now Shaun White dropping out of Slopestyle the day before the contest. Man, slope is sure making an impression at it's Olympic debut. Hopefully the riding will overshadow all the media drama. "

The rest of the Canadians also had a bit of fun with Shaun, especially considering this more than helps their chances at a podium sweep in this newly-added olympic event. Max Parrot. who just won X-Games slope gold less than two weeks ago tweeted, "Shaun knows he won't be able to win the slopes, that’s why he pulled out. He's scared!”. He later deleted that tweet, adding "I’m sorry if I [offended] anybody. I just meant that it’s not as fun to compete at the Olympics when the riders underlights aren’t there." Haha, get in a bit of shit there max?

Seb Toots, another Canadian hopeful tweeted, "Mr. White… It's easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can't win"

Ha. I fucking love it! Shaun White can suck it.

Qualifying in slopestyle begins Thursday and the final is Saturday.

Need more olympic coverage? 33MAG has an exclusive interview with Canadian slopestyle competitor Spencer O'Brien right HERE … check it out!

UPDATE: It should be noted that by withdrawling at this late date, Shaun has essentially "wasted" this coveted spot, that cannot be now filled with another rider due to regulations or whatnot.