Shaun White

All heroes can be different. A hero can be young, old, rich, or poor. However, all heroes have similar qualities. A hero is someone who can be looked up to as a role model. Some of the qualities are perseverance, bravery, and dedication. Heroes are able to overcome their fears and continue striving towards their goals. Setbacks and difficulties do not deter them from working toward achieving their objectives. They can remain focused and push forward despite the hurdles encountered along the way. Some heroes have to give up a lot and sacrifice their personal hobbies and time with their friends and families to practice their skills. Olympic athletes display this type of heroism. It takes years of concentration and dedication to become the world's best Olympic athletes. Shaun White has this type of internal drive to push himself to be the very best athlete that he can be. This is why I chose him to be my hero.

Shaun White was born on September 3, 1986. He was born with a birth defect in his heart called Tetralogy of Fallot. As a result, he had to undergo two major open heart surgeries before his first birthday. He was born in San Diego, but his home town is Carlsbad, a beach city near San Diego. Shaun grew up with his mother, father, brother, and sister. His mother is Cathy. His father is Roger. His brother and sister are Jesse and Kari. His ancestry is Irish and Italian. They were an easy going family, but they were not wealthy so they had to watch their spending. Shaun went to high school in Carlsbad and then on to college at the California State University of San Marcos. Shaun came from a very sports oriented family. His father was a surfer in the 1960's, and his mother's parents were roller derby competitors. His brother snowboards along with him. His sister, along with the rest of the family, skis. This family sports environment history provided the perfect setting for the development of his snowboarding career.

Before setting his sights on snowboarding, Shaun was a skateboarder and skier. He was a maniac on skis, so his sister, Kari, switched him to snowboarding and told him to follow his older brother Jesse's lead. That is how Shaun was introduced to snowboarding which lead to his various medals and championships. Shaun has won medals from the X-Games as well as the Olympics. He has won many more, but the following are his main achievements. He is a five time Winter X-games slope style champion, winning in 2003-2006 and in 2009. He is also an eight time Winter X-games super pipe champion winning in 2003, 2006, and from 2008-2013. In 2006, Shaun was a Winter Olympics gold medalist in men's half pipe. He repeated this by becoming a 2010 Winter Olympic gold medalist in men's half pipe again. The pattern stopped when Shaun came in 4th place in the men's half pipe at the 2014 winter Olympics. Shaun dedicated most of his life to train for these major achievements and overcame many physical injuries on his journey to Olympic gold.

At first, I was amazed to see how many awards Shawn has won. However, over time, as I was researching and writing about Shawn, I found out he was born with a heart defect and had to have several surgeries as a baby. Then, I was even more astonished at the fact that he overcame this defect and went on to be a world class X-Games and twice Olympic champion. Early on while writing this, I knew I had picked an astounding hero with great qualities. However, most of all, I admire his passion for doing what he loves. These are the reasons Shaun White is my hero.