US Shaun White competes in the Men's Snowboard Halfpipe Final at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park during the Sochi Winter Olympics on February 11, 2014.           AFP PHOTO / JAVIER SORIANO        (Photo credit should read JAVIER SORIANO/AFP/Getty Images)
Shaun White's emotional Olympic history
03:24 - Source: CNN

Story highlights

Shaun White targets 2018 Winter Games

Sight of Dad in tears at Turin Olympics in 2006 is defining image of career

Lessons learned from Sochi 4th place are 'humbling'

CNN  — 

He flies and spins high above the halfpipe, pulling tricks such as the Double McTwist 1260, but for snowboarder Shaun White the defining memory of his career is still the sight of his dad crying.

Once dubbed the “Flying Tomato” because of his flowing red hair, White won Olympic gold medals for his aerial antics in Turin and Vancouver.

Despite becoming an icon of his sport, White failed to add to his haul in Sochi, but the pain of defeat is spurring him on for redemption in South Korea in 2018.

Nothing, though, will surpass winning that first gold in front of his family in Italy in 2006.

“It’s the obvious one that stands out the most – the very first one, nothing really compares to that,” the 29-year-old American recently told CNN.

White's family were all in tears when he won gold in Turin - including his dad.

“I remember getting to the bottom of the halfpipe and I’d just won the Olympics. You see your family, everyone is crying and you can handle that – your mum, brother, sister. Everyone is so overwhelmed with joy.

“But when your dad is crying? There’s something about the dad tears that really get you. He’s the tough figure in your life and he’s just bawling and it cuts to the core of you.”

White went to the Vancouver Games with a new trick up his sleeve, the Double McTwist – a forward-flipping manoeuvre performed on the backside and rotating through 1260 degrees – which he renamed the Tomahawk. He had already secured gold with an unassailable lead after the first run but treated fans to the Tomahawk with his second.

White, who has also won 13 gold medals in the X Games, the extreme sports Olympics, went to Russia as hot favorite for a third straight gold medal in 2014.

However, he crashed on his first run at Rosa Khutor and was unable to pull something big enough out of the bag in the second and finished fourth to the shock of the watching world.

White crashed on his first run in Sochi and finished fourth.

Looking back, White believes the experience was priceless.

“Something amazing happened to me at Sochi,” he said. “It was the first time I’d ever not won an Olympics I’d entered. It was heavy and at the time it was rough.

“I wanted to win, I went there to win and I didn’t. It took me some time to see the lessons learned from that.

Kelly Clark is to women’s halfpipe snowboarding what Serena Williams is to tennis. Put plainly, she’s the most dominant athlete in the history of the sport.

White’s world is a whirl of celebrity, snowboarding and organizing events such as Air + Style, a three-event tour taking in Beijing, Innsbruck and Los Angeles and featuring a two-day festival combining a snowboard big air competition with music, art and fashion.

But the lure of Olympic gold is still strong and the 2018 Games in Pyeongchang beckon.

“I’d love to compete,” he says. “Obviously, I have to qualify and do a bunch of different things to get there, but that’s the plan.”

It’s tough to take, but White wants to see those dad tears once again.

What are your favorite Shaun White moments? Have your say on CNN’s Facebook page.