“I Felt Devastated”: Shaun White Admits He Wanted to Quit After a Horrible Performance in 2014

US Olympic star, Shaun White, has put the snowboarding world on its feet, after qualifying for the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics. This was quite a surprise because, until recently, his qualification was still in question.

However, now that White has qualified for his 5th Olympic Games, he will travel as an underdog. Hence, the athlete is preparing well and has his eyes set on another medal.

Before he goes to China, White has taken to his Instagram to share his experiences from his previous Olympic Games. This time, he revisits the Sochi Olympics; the event that taught him a real-life lesson.

Shaun White reveals he was devastated after Sochi 2014 defeat

Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 will be Shaun White‘s 5th appearance on the global stage. He has already been to 4 other Olympics; Turin 2006, Vancouver 2010, Sochi 2014, and PyeongChang 2018.

Apart from Sochi 2014, White won the gold medal in all the other three Olympics, and he plans to do the same in Beijing as well. Recently, White recalled his Sochi 2014 performance and revealed some shocking facts about the same.

“This was my final run at my 3rd Olympics. To be honest, I had been losing motivation to compete and I planned to win this last medal and retire,” said White.

Before his last run, White still had a chance and felt like he could win. But the landing was not good and White was devastated. This was the only Olympics where he failed to win a medal.

“I had a run I felt I could win, but after scrubbing the landing on my third hit…it was all over. I was devastated. This was not how I wanted my career to end.”

White revealed that he felt lost as he would have to wait 4 more years for another Olympics. He didn’t know if he could motivate himself enough to get through these years. Undoubtedly, the loss was heavy for him, but at the same time, White learned a valuable lesson.

A lesson learned

However, this failure taught Shaun White an important lesson. He now knew that things don’t go as planned always. And when things don’t go our way, we must be prepared for the worst.

“Little did I know I was being taught an incredibly valuable lesson: that things don’t always go as planned in life, but that’s ok,” said the 35-year-old athlete.

“We grow from the hard times and these are the moments to reflect and appreciate the things you DO have and look forward to the next goal with experience,” he added.

It is important to learn lessons from our experiences and go ahead with our next goal. White did the same thing and went ahead to win the gold medal again at PyeongChang 2018. However, now, regardless of the result, White has already announced his retirement post-Beijing. Do you think he can leave the grand stage with another medal?

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