Twitter Drags Shaun White for Stepping on US Flag After Winter Olympics Win

Shaun White may have just made history at the Winter Olympics, but Twitter is still very mad at [...]

By Jose Bastidas

Shaun White may have just made history at the Winter Olympics, but Twitter is still very mad at him.

The American snowboarder won Winter Olympics gold for a historic third time in the snowboarding halfpipe scoring an impressive 97.75 score in his final run to become the first person to a trio of Olympic gold medals in the sport.

Eagle-eye viewers, however, were quick to criticize the athlete after he was shown dragging and accidentally stepping on the United States flag as he walked away from the site of the competition.

"Shaun White, don't drag our flag" a user tweeted along with a video of the athlete.

Many social media users jumped on the bandwagon to drag White for his behavior.

However the majority were quick to point out that White was not stepping on the flag on purpose, he was merely distracted celebrating his historic win.

According to HuffPost, White led the field after the first round, as judges gave his initial effort a 94.25 score, but Japanese snowboarder Ayumu Hirano edged to the front with a 95.25 in the second round.

In the last round, with the last run of the final, White pulled a near-perfect run and stole the gold in a triumphant last round. Viewers saw live as White celebrate his historic win with his family and spectators.

White is now on top of the all-time Olympic gold medal tally for snowboarding, which was introduced to the Winter Games in 1998, with wins at the 2006 Torino Games and 2010 Vancouver Games.

It was the fourth gold for the United States in Pyeongchang, with all four medals coming in snowboarding. U.S. athletes have managed to claim golds in all snowboarding competitions thus far, with Red Gerard and Jamie Anderson taking honors in men's and women's slopestyle, and Chloe Kim winning the women's halfpipe on Tuesday.

The early signs pointed to a White win after he posted a 98.50 score on his second run in the qualifying rounds of the halfpipe on Tuesday.

"I started seeing everyone putting these great runs in and I figured I would step it up," White told NBC Sports. "They motivated me to send it on that last one."

He later tweeted that he had been looking forward to the final for four years, since his disappointing performance in Sochi, where he dropped out of the slopestyle competition and placed fourth in the halfpipe.

Coverage of the Winter Olympics can be found on NBC, NBC Sports, USA and The Olympic Network.

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