Shaun White

And it's so weird because I probably had won 10 competitions straight going into this one and got second by a point and a half or something.

And I was just devastated.

Like, how did this happen?

Yeah.

And, you know, that kind of self-worth being derived from those situations is difficult.

You know, it drives you to be better, but it's unsustainable.

You know, if your happiness is just hanging in the balance of... Winning, yeah.

Yeah, and it's a judged event.

It's like, you know, it's opinions of who did better and...

and so yeah i mean how do you manage that now then i wish i could say i i had a good grasp on it when i was younger i mean something about i guess nowadays it's twofold i mean not to pat myself on the back but i've won a lot of events so i don't feel as much i have to prove yeah as much of you know of my you know hey like i'm the best i've been you know like i don't feel like i have to prove as much

so i i'm content with like even i've been at events where i'm just like i'm not competing today because it's unsafe or it's this or i'm not feeling it like you you know if you actually look at my track record like i've pulled out of a lot of events really it's just unsafe at times i look at it as a marathon it's not a sprint it doesn't matter today's that's cool but

And it'll go by and I'll be there next year and maybe the conditions will be better and more favorable and and I'll be healthy and ready to do it.

So I like to think of my career as that that long game.

And so nowadays it helps knowing that like, OK, well, I'm going to lose this event.

I know it's not going to go well, but I know that this is the goal.

Yeah, like it's not this event.

It's that one.

So like qualifying for that last Olympics, like I showed up at the first event knowing I was going to lose.

And I was like, oh, this would be great.

I'm going to show face, see what everyone's doing, and I'll get a clear picture of like, okay, here's where the level's at.