Everyone keeps reminding Shaun White of how old he is, especially compared to his Olympics competitors
- Snowboarding legend Shaun White is competing in his final Olympic games at 35 years old.
- He's been an Olympian since 2006, and many of his opponents in Beijing grew up with him as an idol.
Shaun White has been at this snowboarding thing for quite some time now.
The three-time Olympic gold medalist and legend of his sport first arrived on the Olympic stage in 2006. Then a long-haired 19-year-old better known as the "Flying Tomato," White finished atop the podium in Turin in the first of many stellar Olympic halfpipe performances.
Fast forward 16 years, and the red-headed wonder is still at it — albeit with a drastically different 'do.
Many of the opponents he faces on the slopes are around the same age he was when he first emerged on the international scene. And lots of them grew up idolizing White.
White told Insider that "being one of the older competitors — or actually, unfortunately, the oldest competitor" in snowboarding at the Beijing Olympics while facing significantly younger competition has resulted in his countless "funny moments."
He described one such interaction with Aimee Fuller, a retired British snowboarder whom White considers a friend. Fuller made her Olympic debut at Sochi 2014, and then returned for a second games in Pyeongchang.
Once she stepped away from competition, Fuller took on a role as a BBC analyst. And during a recent interview with White, she poked fun at just how long her friend has stuck around at the Olympics.
"She kicked off the interview, and it was so funny, she was just like, 'So I remember watching you as a kid and thinking this guy's amazing — you were so inspiring,'" White recalled Fuller saying. "'And then I became an amateur snowboarder, then a pro snowboarder.' She's like, 'I went to two Olympics, I had an entire career, and now I'm broadcasting and you're still here. What's happening?!'"
"Something about that really stood out to me because it was like, 'Wow, it's cool I've been able to do it this long and to keep going,'" he added.
Another time, when White was attempting to qualify for the Summer Olympics in skateboarding, he had a similar conversation with a fellow American competitor. At a competition they both attended, Heimana Reynolds, who is 12 years younger than White, admitted that he grew up hoping to emulate the star.
"He showed me a photo of us when he had gotten a photo with me at a competition I was at," White said. "I had this huge, red hair and he looked like a child. He was such a tiny little kid and it's just amazing."
"He's like, 'Dude, I wore your pants,'" he added of Reynolds. "'I used to play your video game. It's just so cool you're here skating with me right now and we could be friends!'"
White's fifth and final Olympic campaign begins with men's halfpipe qualification Tuesday night in America, or Wednesday morning in Beijing. Fans stateside can tune in to watch on NBC at 11:30 p.m. ET.