NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - The Drink with Kate Snow: Shaun White

Episode Date: March 13, 2022

Shaun White discusses how he went from Southern California, to the top of the snowboarding world. Shaun tells Kate Snow about his new snowboard brand, Whitespace, and his hopes to still be involved in the sport. 

Hi, everyone. This is Kate Snow. So happy to share a great conversation that I had with Olympian Sean White over green matcha tea as part of my series, The Drink. It's always about how people got to the top. Sean tells me how he went from sunny Southern California to being sponsored by Burton Snowboards when he was a kid under 10. Amazing. We talked about how he's reinventing himself now, his life after competition. Oh, and you are not going to believe the weirdest thing about him, what he does in his backyard. You can hear a lot more stories of success from top artists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries. You can find it all at NBCNews.com slash The Drink. I held my breath, like watching you in the air. I was like, is it going to be okay? Yeah. My mom was driving around the neighborhood. She's like, I don't want to watch. Seriously? She didn't watch you? No. Sean White, you asked for matcha, right? Yeah. I was never too big into coffee.

And then I remember, you know, everybody would wake up and it's such a ritual and they'd all go to the store, go to the cafe. And like, I would just be left out. So it's like. So like, I have to find something. I'll go, yeah. So I got into tea and then matcha became very popular in my world. So yeah. Sean White, four-time Olympian, three-time gold medalist.

The drink is always about how'd you get here? Like how did you become Sean White? Yeah. It was a lot of just happened to be at the right place at the right time. And then I think it was the support of my family, honestly, because I started skiing around four and then grabbed a board at five. And by six or seven, I was sponsored. How are you sponsored as a seven-year-old? How did that happen?

Well, and that's where the family comes in because we realized that they didn't make snowboards for kids at this point. I mean, I rode ski boots on makeshift bindings on a board for the longest time because they just didn't have equipment it was so new yeah um and my mom uh called Burton Snowboards was like hey my son and I don't think it was because I was that great or anything it's just they needed kids to test the products and I fit the bill and got a board but it meant the world to me I was like wow and then at that point they're like look well we to get you product. You should maybe try some competitions. And I was entered into a race, the local amateur division, and I won. You were how old? Gosh, I was probably like six, seven years old. Yeah, that sparked everything. Was it skateboarding or snowboarding first,

or was it all together? I want to say it was skateboarding because it was like a means of transportation. It was my bicycle and my skateboard. So skateboarding was really first. But then I got all the recognition and sponsorships within snowboarding. So that really took the limelight. Until I was probably 16 and I had this big talk with Tony Hawk. I was like, I think I'm ready. Tony Hawk, skateboarder phenomenon.

Yeah, yeah. World renowned. Legend. And I was so in awe of him, obviously, Tony Hawk, and just crazy the fact that we were becoming friends at this point. I was known so much in the snowboard world

that to cross that kind of barrier in the skate world, I kind of wanted his approval and some, you know, other people. What did he say? He was really funny about it he was just kind of like yeah why not like i'm surprised you haven't done it already yeah like what's going on it's like okay it was like this big moment for me and he was like yeah yeah great why not can i tell you honestly watching you in these 2022 as we sit here now post 2022

beijing i held my breath like watching you in the air i was like is it gonna be okay because yeah my mom was driving around the neighborhood she's like i don't want to watch seriously she didn't watch you did a huge party and she just laughed she's like i can't it's a lot as a mom i can imagine i have kids like i can imagine being really freaked out i mean i'm so glad you're here in one piece everything's fine you know of course um it didn't quite turn out the way you were hoping of course but it was a perfect you know thing of like i i'd gotten fourth at sochi and was like wow kind of I got fourth. I just missed the podium, which is frustrating. But knowing me, if I would have gotten third, I would have been like, I could have done this to get second. And then if I was in second, I could have. It's just the competitor. You always want more. career and having three gold medals in my pocket already and to just be there at this age and ride with these younger competitors and I mean almost hit the podium it's it's I was very proud and by

the way you're what 35 35 you're not an old man no no maybe you've got a lot of life ahead of you have you even been able to process yet what that's going to look like? Or are you still like in the glow of Beijing and trying to? It's both. I mean, being able to kind of, and this is what I was so thankful about. Knowing friends that were on traditional sports teams and got the phone call like, hey, come into the office. And I'm like, well, it's over. And they weren't prepared.

They weren't ready. I felt so thankful that I was able to decide. And then that choice made everything after that just so incredible. Yeah, you did this on your own terms. Yeah, yeah. And even those moments where you're crying and the people were coming, everybody's coming up to you, that had to be affirming. Like, they worship you.

You know, the people that are, what what like 10 years at least younger than you it was so cool i mean one of the competitors is like i haven't told you this but i i had your snowboard i wore the jacket you wore yeah when he first started i was like oh man yeah right so really humbling moment and the sport is so great there's still so many things to be involved in and just like talking with richard t Richard Tony Hawk, he retired years ago. He's like, I still do so much within the sport, but I'm just not getting scored anymore to do it. Right. You can still snowboard.

You can still hit the mountain. I know you already have a company. You've got your own line of snowboards, right? Which is a big deal. Is that what's next? I think a mix of things. Obviously, there's this list I wrote out with the help of my girlfriend. She's like, just write it out and we'll get to this list and things I want to do with the free time. What's on the list? Well, I checked one off already. I wanted to, I've never been to the Superbowl. I landed from China, went straight to the Superbowl. It was just like,

so that was incredible to check something off the list, um, just places to travel and then some simple stuff and just being around for birthdays, holidays, things like that. Um, and then the brand is so incredible. So I started the snowboarding kind of lifestyle activewear company with my brother, Whitespace. And, you know, when I was a kid, they didn't have products for kids. I was gifted a board for Burton Snowboards at that young age. And I keep thinking, like, wow, if I could be that. I mean, look where that spark brought me today.

If I could, yeah, some young boy or girl or whoever has that excitement for the sport and like mentor them and build the team for the brand. And like there's just so much to do still. Yeah, there's a lot of business opportunity there. And I love being able to pour my energy into that because it's so authentic to, you know, I know what goes into a great board and I know all these things. so to use that expertise and put it into a brand it's gonna be fun can we do a quick lightning round sure this one's for my daughter okay she's a snowboarder okay favorite tune that you listen to as you're going down the mountain oh man acdc back and black nice

you need something that goes favorite trick favorite trick is the front side 360 okay that's when you go this way just degrees of rotation so half a circle 180 full 360 so it's like okay it's just a spin but it's yeah it's really small spin so you can kind of look around like wave to the friend you see everything yeah you kind of you get to enjoy it yeah i like it yeah weirdest thing about you oh um i love uh gardening you do i do come on yeah sean white the gardener i'm into it i like i like trim the gloves like the knee pads you're out there like home depot is big in my world i go there and get like I get the you know hey we could fix that fence I'm like I got this okay it's not perfect

um yeah best advice you ever got most recently this one's popped in my head was now that you're retired don't stop working out oh yeah we're a lot of athletes for like it's hard to get it back once you lose it. So stay strong. I'm going to ask this delicately. Is there a marriage in your future? I would love at some point, of course. I'm in a wonderful relationship, so we'll see where it goes. But now we have the time to actually spend together. So we'll see. She's here. Oh yeah. She's here.

Yeah. I'm like, I'm only in New York for two days. You have to come with me. Nice. Sean, it's been great. Thank you so much. Thank you. Cheers. Really appreciate it.

Cheers.