THIS IS ‘THE END’

Iconic snowboarder White nishes fourth in his nal Olympics

By Scott Reid sreid@scng.com

They lined up at the bottom of Olympic Games halfpipe on a sundrenched freezing morning dusted with a coat of history and emotion, Swiss, Australian, Japanese, German riders, side by side, forming a sort of snowboard honor guard for the greatest to ever clip himself into a board.

Shaun White, the three-time Olympic champion, smiled and laughed as the other riders high-fived and embraced, but his eyes revealed his true emotions and the enormity of the moment. Only moments before the other riders, one of whom, Australia’s Valentino Guseli, was only 10 months old when White won his first gold medal, stood transfixed on the top of the hill as White began his final Olympic run in fourth place, his rivals, like the rest of us, ex-

Sharks

pecting him to take these Games on one last epic ride.

White opened big and hopeful with a 1440 and for a second, one last split-second, we were reminded of Olympics past, of Turin and Vancouver and most of all of Pyeongchang four years ago. But he fell on his second trick, and the rest of the run became a lap of honor, a curtain call, White removing his helmet, acknowledging the fans, bidding the Olympics adieu

Montana’s comments come two months after another 49ers legend, Steve Young, appeared on KNBR and expressed frustration that Shanahan had largely excluded Lance from the team’s o ensive game plans during the second half of the season.

“Why is Trey not capable of getting on the field?” Young asked in December.