Shaun White has pulled out of the newest Winter Olympic event, slopestyle.
White, 27, will focus on the half-pipe event after citing concerns with the slopestyle course.
“After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA,” White said in a statement. “The difficult decision to forego slopestyle is not one I take lightly as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part being a part of.”
On Monday one medal contender in Norway’s Torstein Horgmo broke his collarbone during a run.
Of course not everyone is buying White’s reason for pulling out of the event. Max Parrot believes White is afraid of not winning.
In a now deleted tweet Parrot wrote “Shaun knows he won’t be able to win the slopes, thats why he pulled out. He’s scared!”
Those comments were echoed by his Canadian teammate.
Mr. White… It's easy to find excuses to pull out of a contest when you think you can't win…
— Sebastien Toutant (@SebToots) February 5, 2014
Parrot has since apologized for his comments.
I'm sorry if I offence anybody. I just meant that it's not as fun to compete at the Olympics when the riders underlights aren't there.
— Maxence Parrot (@MaxParrot) February 5, 2014
