Shaun White says he’s going to the world skateboarding championships in Brazil in September as he contemplates whether to go for a Tokyo 2020 run in the new Olympic sport.
“I’ve been watching the competitions lately and got really inspired,” White said on TODAY on Tuesday, one year out from the Olympics. “I thought it would be amazing to go compete at the world championships in September. ... First steps are first, see what happens [before an Olympic decision].”
White said last July that he would lighten his snowboard schedule as he returns to skateboarding competition.
White, 32, entered his first skateboard contest in years in September and called his performance “pretty terrible,” but not surprising given it was his first-ever bowl event.
White earned five X Games skateboard medals between 2005 and 2011, but all of those came in vert, which is not on the Olympic program.
“Honestly, I am here to see how things go,” White said at the September event in Marseille, according to Agence France-Presse. “I haven’t made a decision either way [on 2020], I just figured, want to have some fun, skateboard, come to France and then hopefully make a decision come new year if I’m really going to go for it or not.”
White hasn’t competed in snowboarding since the PyeongChang Olympics, his longest break in that sport.
White has said he would like to go for a fifth Winter Games in Beijing in 2022. He would be 35, older than any previous Olympic snowboarding champion. He’s already the oldest halfpipe medalist.
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