In 2010 Shaun White was at the midst of what’s referred to in music as his “imperial phase”. Like Oasis circa What’s The Story… everything he touched turned to gold. He could have put down a run of B-grade tricks that would’ve outsold The Masterplan, and he was quite simply untouchable – in the pipe at least.

That year he rocked up at the X Games a few weeks before the Olympics and proceeded to completely cow the opposition with this run, which included a recently-learned trick that no-one could do.

His performance oozed confidence, and sent a clear message to the rest of the Olympic hopefuls: “I own the halfpipe”.

The fact that Shaun opted not to show up and do the same at this year’s X Games suggests to us that he’s not feeling nearly as confident in his preparations this time around.

That might have more to do with him feeling he’s got work to do in slopestyle rather than any fears about the other pipe riders. But as his self-funded documentary showed, he was thrown by iPod landing the Yolo before he did, and with Ayumu trying triples, perhaps he’s feeling even the pipe isn’t a foregone conclusion.