Shaun White - Future Gold at the Winter Olympics?
With only 9 days to go to the opening of the Winter Olympics in Torino - pundits are already starting to speculate about possible winners and losers.
After winning the snowboard superpipe event during the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colorado this monday, Shaun White is being tipped for gold in the snowboarding event at the winter olympics.
According to a recent interview Shaun is "pumped" and "can't wait to get to Torino".
I can't blame him - a chance to compete against the best of the best of the world has to be an enticing proposition for any sports enthusiast.
With teams of highly talented snowboarders from all over the world -from Canada, Australia, Finland, Switerland, Germany and even the UK - anywhere there is snow in fact.
With snowboarding slowly being recognised as "real" sport - not surprising given just how spectacular and photogenic the stunts can be - it looks like Winter Olympica at Torino this year has plenty of excitement in store for extreme sports fans everywhere.
The mens' half-pipe event runs on the 12th of Febraury, with the Womens' event the day after.
Likewise, the mens' cross-country event is on the 16th with the womens' the day after.
Good luck to everyone who is going - I expect this Winter Olympics to be even better than Salt Lake City 2002 - there are some great images of that event on the Winter Olympics website.
Tags: extreme sports extreme tales snowboarding shaun white winter olympics torino 2006