Just quietly and with apologies to Scotty James – go the Flying Tomato

A snowboarding legend will take his Olympic bow on Friday and deserves a fairytale finish.

Shaun White will be chasing his fourth Olympic gold medal on Friday Picture: Getty Images

The sporting gods have been smiling on us lately. Grinning their pretty little heads off. Ash Barty and Rafa Nadal won the best ever Australian Open. Kelly Slater and Moana Jones Wong won the best ever Pipeline Masters.

The twin Ashes triumphs made you think these chuckling deities, moulding results at their whim, have come to recognise that dream triumphs have become emotional antidotes to the blasted pandemic.

Shaun White is as electrifying athlete as ever you will see, even if you only see him every four years. I reckon no amount of divine intervention can give the rock star of all snowboarding rock stars one more Winter Olympics gold medal in the halfpipe final at Zhangjiakou on Friday but just quietly, go him. Win, lose, draw, crash, burn, he’ll be a sight to see while the jingoistic Channel 7 coverage goes gaga over Australia’s Scotty James and Valentino Guseli

I remember the GOAT’s gold medal run at the 2018 PyeongChang Games being so damn electrifying that I leapt from my seat and punched the sky, even if I’m only remembering that now.

He stood atop the pipe. White suit. Stars and Stripes on his left shoulder gave him the appearance of a NASA astronaut. He jumped up and down on his board, amped to the eyeballs after blasting his brain with a pre-run playlist of AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses, Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin.

One run, make or break. Insane pressure give the four-year wait for his next Olympic run. And he tore it to shreds. Annihilated it. A frontside double cork 1440 sent him to the clouds and back. Nailed it. Another 1440. Landed that one, too.

Something called a tomahawk. Something involving a cork and a 1260. Skidding to a finish, he crouched low and put his hands to his head like you do when every hope and dream comes true.

He tore off his goggles, unstrapped his moon boots and cried. Nothing better than seeing a G.O.A.T cry.

The 35-year-old White is the bloke who sent snowboarding to the stratosphere. He’s Elvis, and he has one day left in Olympic competition. Three runs, best run counts, never to be seen again.

The three-time gold medallist is taking on all these young punks who have come along as the new Shaun Whites. Being a blazing redhead, he’s always been called the Flying Tomato.

I suspect Tomato has Buckleys against Japan’s Ayumu Hirano and the 27-year-old James, Australia’s PyeongChang bronze medallist, probably has him covered, too, in the final of what may be the hottest event of the Games. James can definitely grab a medal; it’ll be a miracle if Valentino’s day comes early.

Hirano is the leading qualifier from James, Ruka Hirano and the Flying Tomato. James has all the Australian support but fair-dinkum a big part of me is all for White. He bombed his first run in qualifying. The three-time Winter Olympics gold medallist could have gone out on the ultimate bummer, dude, not even reaching the medal round.

“His joy at perfectly executing his next run was up there with his PyeongChang gold, which he pinched from Hirano. At his age and stage, like Slater at Pipe, all he wanted was one more chance. So, go him.

Being Australian doesn’t mean you have to barrack for the Australians, does it?

“I can‘t tell you how relieved I was,” he said. “Just, phew. Feeling good. I’m just so proud. Proud to put it down and proud to go into finals. Honestly I would be lying to say I wasn’t nervous. I was thinking, ‘Wow. I have one more chance to get this done.’ Then on the chairlift, and I have to wait almost an hour for my next chance.

“I’m just trying to stay positive but there’s a lot of ’Wow, it’s your last Olympics and you might not make it into the final,’ circling in my head. I had to push that aside. Focus. Get down to business. Get that run in. Gosh, it’s always the same.

“Pressure is pressure and you’ve got to learn to deal with it. That’s what makes a great competitor. Anyway let’s brush this off and finals here we go.”