“Wiped Blood All Over My Face”: Shaun White Recalls His Most Embarrassing Olympic Moment

Going to the Olympics is every athlete’s dream. US Legend Shaun White got to live that dream not once or twice, but 5 times. From 2006 to 2022, Shaun represented the United States in 5 Olympics, grabbing medals in 3 of them.

Athletes prepare their best for the Olympics, training hard day and night. In the moment of performance, some get nervous while some are more than ready. However, it’s common for even the most confident of athletes to get nervous during those final moments.

Shaun White is also one of them. Shaun White was 19 years old when he went to his first Olympics in Torino. This was really big for him and the young athlete was nervous. This ultimately led to the most embarrassing moment of his Olympics career.

An oops moment for the Shaun White

The Winter Olympics was held in the month of February in Torino, Italy in 2006. At 19 years old, Shaun White was one of the youngest snowboarders to qualify for his very first Olympics.

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Naturally, the young athlete was super nervous. There were many super talented snowboarders, but it was easy to spot Shaun between them. With his bright red hair, he was nicknamed the “Flying Tomato.” White however, reveals that it was before his final run, that he had a really embarrassing moment.

“I was in between my final runs and I was super nervous and I remember thinking like, ‘oh I will put some sunscreen on,” said Shaun. White decided to put some sunscreen on and took off his helmet to do that. What followed after was really unexpected.

“I didn’t realize that I had gotten nose bleeds. While I was putting on my sunscreen, I just wiped blood all over my face.”

As embarrassing as this was, things were about to get more embarrassing for White. He wasn’t the only one horrified at this. Turns out, the camera crew was present there too.

White horrifies camera crew at Torino Olympics

Just when Shaun White realized about his bleeding nose, the camera crew also came around to cover him.

“And the NBC camera crew was like panning around because I was like the favorite to do and they just looked at me in horror,” revealed the 5 time Olympian.

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Following this, Shaun White did all his runs with napkins hanging down from his nostrils to stop his bleeding. White went ahead to clinch the Gold medal with back-to-back 1080s and 900’s.