AMONG THE MANY film clips of White you can find on YouTube, my favorite is from an interview he did with CNN shortly after the Olympics. He's on a live satellite video feed, propped in front of what appears to be a green-screen backdrop of downtown L.A., holding his gold medal in front of him like a delicate pastry. The in-studio female anchor is asking about his newfound fame, and he starts telling her about a recent plane ride: "I had unlimited service. I was getting drinks, and I was getting snacks. I was taking photos in the back with all the stewardesses—"

"Wait a minute," the anchor interrupts. "Drinks? You're 19 years old."

White pauses a beat, glances at his medal as if it has the answer, then delivers his retort (and sponsor plug) with a faint, coy smile: "I'm talking about Mountain Dews, baby." It's not obnoxious; it's charming, which is exactly how millions of Americans judged White's off-snow performances at Turin, where he was a favorite on the Today show. He's such a magnetic performer that you can be lulled into thinking that winning doesn't even matter all that much, that he could just go on giving interviews and filming commercials just because people adore the Flying Tomato. Hawk and White know better.

What is it about Shaun that's attracted so much attention?
HAWK: He absolutely dominated for a year. He won almost every single event. Still, going into Turin, Bode Miller was on every cover, while some big magazines didn't even mention Shaun. It's because there's still this slight uncertainty out there about snowboarding being legitimate. The only advantage to it was that Shaun didn't get built up to be the ultimate disappointment. Bode certainly did, though.
WHITE: But it's going to be that way for me next time. It's going to be that huge Bode thing—I can see it coming.
HAWK: Yeah. You better not fuck that one up.