Second-place finisher doesn't think Shaun White deserved the gold
To the victor goes the spoils.
To the victor also goes the jealousy, apparently.
U.S. snowboarder Shaun White is no stranger to being the victor.
He procured the third goal medal of his career when he notched a near-perfect 97.75 in the halfpipe competition Wednesday at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.
REDEMPTION FOR SHAUN WHITE!
HE WINS GOLD on his final run in men's snowboard halfpipe! #BestOfUS #WinterOlympics https://t.co/E1XuTKbGvd pic.twitter.com/b4Yn2jVVGN
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) February 14, 2018
It was a dominant and flawless run, with a smattering of controversy initially only taking place after the event.
Now, however, it seems Japanese Olympian Ayumu Hirano thinks there may have been some controversy during the competition.
The 19-year-old Hirano scored a very impressive 95.25 on his second run.
Ayumu Hirano moves to 1st 🏅with a 95.25 #olympics #PyeongChang2018 #snowboard pic.twitter.com/lWjr9IhTwO
— Reddit Sports (@RedditSports) February 14, 2018
At the end of the day, White took home the gold medal and Hirano took home the silver medal.
Hirano contends that the roles should’ve been reversed.
Asked if he felt he deserved gold instead of White, he responded, “Yes, I do.”
Hirano did acknowledge, however, that the scores were final.
“The result is the result,” he said, “and whatever I do, whatever I say, the result cannot be changed.”
Despite the 2.50 point difference in their respective final scores, Hirano maintains that White’s final run did not demonstrably out-do his own.
“There are no big differences between us, what we did,” he said. “Under this condition, on this pipe it’s very, very difficult to mark higher than [White] did.”
Hirano conceded he might have areas for improvement.
“But perhaps I have some room to improve on the height and the perfectness, perfect landing,” he said.
This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that White’s rivals have implied that judges score him differently from his peers.
“Every [other] snowboarder starts from the bottom and they earn their points,” British snowboarder Aimee Fuller said after White scored a perfect 100 in the Winter Olympics qualifying. “Shaun starts at the top and they deduct his points, so unless he does anything particularly wrong, he’s staying at the top.”
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