LAST RUN

Snowboarder Shaun White Says He’ll Retire After Beijing

The three-time gold medalist says physical wear and tear has made it harder to compete.

Gold-medal snowboarder Shaun White announced Saturday that he is retiring after the Winter Olympics in Beijing due to physical wear and tear. “They were taking away from days in practice, and I was watching the tricks getting heavier and heavier,” the 35-year-old athlete known as the “Flying Tomato” said. “I was riding down from the halfpipe in Austria, and I got lost, and I had to take this chair back up. And on that chairlift ride, the mountain was closing and I was on my own and I was watching the sun go down, and it hit me: this is it.” White has won gold at three previous Olympics and has also racked up 18 X games medals in his career. He competes Wednesday in Beijing.