White sidelined due to COVID symptoms

Snowboard great Shaun White's withdrawal from a key Olympic qualifying event came after he experienced lingering COVID-19 symptoms, including fatigue and shortness of breath, The Associated Press has learned.

A person familiar with White's decision told AP that White's withdrawal from Saturday night's US Grand Prix at Mammoth Mountain in California does not impact his plans to compete at next month's Beijing Winter Games. The person requested anonymity because White has not publicly disclosed the reason for his withdrawal.

Last week, White revealed he had tested positive for COVID-19 in December but had been cleared to ride in Mammoth Mountain and was on the mend. White, who had asthma as a child, said the virus was like "a lingering cold".

White joined champion skier Mikaela Shiffrin and skater Alysa Liu on the list of high-profile Olympic hopefuls to contract COVID-19 in the lead-up to the Games.

The US team has until Jan 21 to name the full snowboard team. Only one man, Taylor Gold, has secured a spot, but coaches can award up to three discretionary spots on the halfpipe team and White, a three-time Olympic gold medalist who is ranked 14th in the world, meets all the conditions to receive one.

White went through the first run of Saturday's qualifying round and made it easily into the finals. But when the finals started, White was a no-show. US coach Mike Jankowski said White had aggravated an ankle injury, but the person who spoke to AP said White's ankle was not an issue and it was COVID-19 symptoms that led him to call it a night.

Jankowski did not immediately return phone messages left by AP.

This marked the latest setback for the 35-year-old White, who is hoping to compete in his fifth Olympics. At the Dew Tour in December, he was riding well, but a broken binding during his first run in the final threw a wrench in his plans and led to a seventh-place finish. He had finished eighth in a separate qualifier the week earlier.

White also finished fourth last March in a qualifying event, but has so far fallen short of a podium finish that would secure a spot under the US Ski and Snowboard team's "objective criteria" for qualifying.

Despite the rough lead-up to the Olympics, it's hard to imagine a scenario in which the team wouldn't give White a discretionary spot.

White has been an ever-present in the US Winter Olympic team since he won his first gold in Turin in 2006 as a 19-year-old.

He retained his title at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games, then snatched a third gold with a dramatic final-run triumph at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

White said in December that he expected the Beijing Games to be his last. "I haven't really said this too much, so it's going to feel weird coming out of my mouth, but this is I think my last run," he said on NBC television's Today program.

Agencies