It has been a year since Shaun White retired from competitive snowboarding, leaving a marvelous legacy in the sport. For the longest time, White was the only snowboarder who could pull off the most sophisticated tricks on the halfpipe, practically undefeated in the event.

And he supplemented all his talent by hours upon hours of hard work, where he fell off the slopes repeatedly to perfect his gravity-defying tricks. Once, White crashed on his face during training months before the 2018 Olympic Games.

But Shaun White isn’t afraid of the falls

In October 2017, Shaun White had a scary crash while training in Cardrona, New Zealand that busted up his face pretty badly. He had to get 62 stitches across his forehead, lips, and tongue. Just months before the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, he fell while performing a double flip 1440.

But White wasn’t phased and got back on the slope as soon as he recovered. “I’ve had worse,” White told NBC in a telephonic interview. “I would say it’s the most, like, visually alarming crash [in my career], you know what I mean?” He revealed his worst crash by far was when he was 11 and fractured his hand, and foot, and got a hairline fracture in his skull.

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Months later, he gave an astounding performance on the halfpipe in Pyeongchang, winning his third Olympic title in the halfpipe. Talking to Extra, he revealed that his injury was the least of his worries. So what is the legendary Shaun White afraid of?

“Sharks,” he told the interviewer. “Traffic. It’s terrible, yeah. 5 o’clock, you want me to go where?” The seemingly fearless snowboarder will hurtle down the 22 feet wall of the halfpipe when a trick goes wrong. But do not invite him out during rush hour traffic, because the answer will be a no.

And White overcame his fear of sharks as well

Just a few days ago, Shaun White took to Instagram to speak out against the hunting of sharks for sport. He uploaded pictures and videos of him swimming with sharks with no cages and shared his experience. 

“I never would’ve imagined jumping in the water with Tiger sharks… But my girlfriend got in first, so I was forced to man up and get in too 🫣,” he joked. He also revealed that the experience helped him overcome his fear of sharks. “I’m so glad I did. this experience completely shattered the preconceived notion about sharks being vicious killers. They were so calm and peaceful.” 

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He continued, “I was so sad to learn that sharks are being hunted for sport. They need to be protected, not killed.” With his aversion to sharks out of the way, is Shaun White now invincible? The fearless snowboarding legend retired in 2021 after his last Olympic run in Beijing. Now, he is enjoying his clear schedule with his girlfriend, the actor Nina Dobrev.