Shaun White‘s post-Sochi plans included playing shows with his band and partying with the man who beat him in the Olympic halfpipe.
The two-time Olympic champion visited “The Tonight Show” with Jimmy Fallon on Thursday and talked Sochi. White’s third Winter Games weren’t memorable. He pulled out of the first Olympic slopestyle competition and finished fourth in the halfpipe.
But the problems began as soon as he arrived at his rented house.
“The whole left side wasn’t there,” he said (full episode here). “It wasn’t built. … It was just kind of like unfinished.”
Like a doll house, he said.
“The best was the response,” White said, turning on a Russian accent. “Don’t worry. It will snow. You won’t see anything. It’ll be nice.”
It wasn’t much smoother for his snowboard teammates at the Olympic Village. White said he was told a shower floor flooded, and water dripped onto the floor below — bobsledders’ beds.
“They come back, and it’s just like monsoon,” White said.
White discussed more Sochi problems, specifically the halfpipe conditions.
“Basically we had three days to practice, and the pipe was pretty much unrideable for three days because of the, I don’t know, just the snow conditions were really bizarre,” he said. “There’s photos. They had like a fire hose and were trying to like ice it down and do all these things. … I’ve never seen that.”
White reiterated he had an off-night in the halfpipe final but that it didn’t make or break his career. The winner, Swiss Iouri Podladtchikov, is a good friend. White said he planned to see Podladtchikov later Thursday night.
“He doesn’t know I’m going,” White said. “I’m just going to show up. … I’m going to crash his party.”
White will stay in New York this weekend, playing a show at Mercury Lounge on Sunday and then “The Tonight Show” next Thursday.
