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Second-place finisher doesn't think Shaun White deserved the gold

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To the victor goes the spoils.

To the victor also goes the jealousy, apparently.

U.S. snowboarder Shaun White is no stranger to being the victor.

He procured the third goal medal of his career when he notched a near-perfect 97.75 in the halfpipe competition Wednesday at the Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

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It was a dominant and flawless run, with a smattering of controversy initially only taking place after the event.

Now, however, it seems Japanese Olympian Ayumu Hirano thinks there may have been some controversy during the competition.

The 19-year-old Hirano scored a very impressive 95.25 on his second run.

At the end of the day, White took home the gold medal and Hirano took home the silver medal.

Hirano contends that the roles should’ve been reversed.

Asked if he felt he deserved gold instead of White, he responded, “Yes, I do.”

Hirano did acknowledge, however, that the scores were final.

“The result is the result,” he said, “and whatever I do, whatever I say, the result cannot be changed.”

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Despite the 2.50 point difference in their respective final scores, Hirano maintains that White’s final run did not demonstrably out-do his own.

“There are no big differences between us, what we did,” he said. “Under this condition, on this pipe it’s very, very difficult to mark higher than [White] did.”

Hirano conceded he might have areas for improvement.

“But perhaps I have some room to improve on the height and the perfectness, perfect landing,” he said.

This certainly wouldn’t be the first time that White’s rivals have implied that judges score him differently from his peers.

“Every [other] snowboarder starts from the bottom and they earn their points,” British snowboarder Aimee Fuller said after White scored a perfect 100 in the Winter Olympics qualifying. “Shaun starts at the top and they deduct his points, so unless he does anything particularly wrong, he’s staying at the top.”

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Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics.
Bryan Chai has written news and sports for The Western Journal for more than five years and has produced more than 1,300 stories. He specializes in the NBA and NFL as well as politics. He graduated with a BA in Creative Writing from the University of Arizona. He is an avid fan of sports, video games, politics and debate.
Birthplace
Hawaii
Education
Class of 2010 University of Arizona. BEAR DOWN.
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English, Korean
Topics of Expertise
Sports, Entertainment, Science/Tech




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