Shaun White wins again in X Games' superpipe

ASPEN, COLO. — Shaun White is not the dominant force he once was in the superpipe.

But that's only because of an emerging star named Kevin Pearce.

Finally, a rivalry snowboarding fans can appreciate.

But the edge still belongs to White, 22, who also remains the coolest competitor on the planet.

A week after being upstaged by Pearce late in the European Open, White on Sunday pulled out a dramatic triumph of his own at the Winter X Games -- the world's biggest non-Olympics stage.

Trailing after two rounds, on a snowy night, White, as the final competitor, uncorked a series of gigantic maneuvers to pull past Pearce and six others and win the X Games superpipe competition for the second consecutive year.

"I thought about falling again," he said afterward, in reference to falls on his first two runs. "But I kind of blanked all that out -- that was not an option."

White, the 2006 Olympic gold medalist, garnered his ninth Winter X Games gold medal and 14th overall Winter X medal. Both are records.

Pearce, 21, who is aspiring to qualify for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, took the lead in the second round with a score of 90.66.

His routine included a frontside air 18 feet high, a McTwist, back-to-back 1080s and a frontside 900.

Pearce held his lead until White concluded the contest with a technically difficult backside rodeo flip, a 900, back-to-back 1080s and a McTwist, which essentially is a 540 rotation while back-flipping.

It could have gone either way, but judges gave White a 91.66.

Said Pearce: "It was tough sitting down there watching. I knew he had his focus there at the end. It's not a position I ever want to have again."

But it's a position both figure to experience many times more.

U.S. skiers X'd out

Conspicuously absent from the men's Skier X podium were Daron Rahlves, the 2008 champion, and Casey Puckett, the 2007 champion.

"That kind of spoils ESPN's show, doesn't it?" said Canada's Stanley Hayer, the wire-to-wire winner, who was followed across the finish line by Japan's Hiroomi Takizawa and Switzerland's Andreas Steffan.

Hayer, last year's runner-up, strongly implied he'd grown weary of playing anonymous second fiddle to "the Daron Rahlves show."

Dreadfully slow conditions caused by steady snow, however, made for an atypical race day.

Clothing malfunction