Halfpipe, Men

This event was slightly different in 2010 as it was conducted on a pipe with 22 foot (6.7 m) walls, technically called a superpipe (defined as >16 foot walls). The heavy favorite was Shaun White of the United States, the defending champion, who had taken the sport to new dimensions with his famed Double McTwist (three horizontal inside two vertical flips) and the double cork spin (two off-axis rotations, or diagonal flips) since his victory in 2006. Since Torino, he had won the superpipe at the Winter X Games in both 2008 and 2009. There were questions about the sport in 2010, as a pre-Games contender, American Kevin Pearce, had hit his head hard on the top of pipe while attempting a double cork spin, and had sustained a severe traumatic brain injury. Only a few weeks earlier, at the Winter X Games, White had won the superpipe, but had hit his chin on the top of pipe on one run, fortunately not severely injuring himself.

White qualified comfortably for the final in Vancouver. In his first run in the final he scored 46.8 (out of 50) to lead comfortably over Scotty Lago (USA) with 42.8 and Swiss rider Iouri Podladtchikov, who had competed at Torino for Russia, and had recently been second to White at the Winter X Games with 42.4 points. Many of the competitors had ambitious programs for their second run, but most failed to complete their runs without serious error. One exception was Peetu Piiroinen (FIN), runner-up at the 2009 US Open, who exceeded his 40.8 first run score with a run worth 45.0 points that moved him into second place. By the time White was to start his second run, he was already assured of the gold medal, and thrilled the crowd by putting in his trademark Double McTwist movement for an outstanding score of 48.4 points.