Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Shaun White: The Last Run’ on Max, a Docuseries Following the Legendary Snowboarder’s Olympic Swan Song

When it comes to competitive snowboarding, there’s no one as celebrated as Shaun White. A five-time Olympian and three-time Olympic gold medalist, White has won more than any snowboarder in history, and his distinctive look–long, fiery-red hair–made him the face of the sport for a generation. The 2022 Winter Olympics marked his final run, and in Shaun White: The Last Run, a new four-part documentary miniseries on Max, we see White face down that ending.

SHAUN WHITE: THE LAST RUN: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A director claps hands, and we begin with a shot of White being interviewed by an off-screen voice. “So Shaun… is this gonna be the last run?”, the voice asks. “I really don’t know… I mean, as long as I can remember, this is what I’ve done,” White replies after a heavy sigh, and then we jump to a snow-covered competition slope. “This is who I am,” White’s answer continues. “It’s not walking away from a sport, it’s walking away from a piece of identity… and I just don’t know really who I am without it.”

The Gist: Shaun White: The Last Run follows a familiar format for single-athlete documentaries–part as-it-happens footage, part life story. For the former, we get contemporary footage of White’s 2022 Olympic push, but for the latter, we get home movies of White’s childhood, and interviews with his family members and other figures from his past.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of?There’s plenty of single-athlete documentaries to compare to, but for a recent point of comparison, it reminds strongly of Netflix’s McGregor Forever, which follows MMA fighter Conor McGregor as he faces down the prospect of his long and celebrated career ending. Endings often make for the most compelling sports stories.

Our Take: If you follow competitive snowboarding, you know Shaun White’s long resume. And if you don’t follow snowboarding? You still probably know Shaun White. As snowboarding made the jump from X-Games extreme sport to mainline Olympic sport, White’s smiling skate-punk visage became the first thing millions of people would think of when they thought of the sport.

For years, White was the young kid on the scene–entering and winning competitions as a young teenager–but time comes for everyone, and as the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics approached, he found himself in the unfamiliar position of being the sport’s elder statesman, a 36-year-old snowboarder going up against rivals literally half his age. It’s at this point that the filmmakers of Shaun White: The Last Run pick up with him, preparing for what he says will be his final competition after decades as the face of the sport. An early training sequence in the first episode does an excellent job of conveying just how physically demanding the sport is–little shots of competitors trudging through the snow and huffing as they scale the halfpipe adding up to a sense of general exhaustion.

These contemporaneous scenes are intertwined with archival footage of White’s long career as a competitor, but also his life growing up as a daredevil kid determined to succeed. Born with a congenital heart defect, White spent much of his first year of life in a hospital, his family worried that he would require a pacemaker to live. Quickly, though–as home movies and interviews with his family hammer home–his incredible drive became evident, a kid who simply could not stop moving. By the age of 10, White set his sights on becoming a competitive snowboarder–a ludicrous thing to suggest both at that age and in 1996, when such a job barely existed.

There’s quite a bit of tonal contrast in between these two threads–while the present-day footage is weighted down by the drama of White’s career ending, and the uncertain results of the approaching Olympics, the biographical footage is a lot more fun. White’s family is camera-friendly and pretty funny, and seeing White as a rambunctious kid is a lark. A segment showing how anti-establishment snowboard was seen to be back in the 1990s is especially entertaining–a dour ski patrol member grimly recounting the trouble he’s had with snowboarders is hilarious–but more than anything, these segments are fun because we know that everything is going to work out, both for White and for snowboarding as a sport. This levity helps The Last Run from being too heavy; it can’t just be about the ending, it’s got to be about the entirety of the journey.

Sex and Skin: None.

Parting Shot: After footage of White struggling in a 2021 competition, the episode rewinds to one of his greatest moments of triumph, the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino, Italy. A cocky, 19-year-old White comes in on a long winning streak, admittedly not fully appreciating the gravity of the moment. He botches his first qualifying run, backing himself into a corner with only one chance to make the finals. He nails it, then runs away with the gold medal. His family in tears, the weight of his accomplishment finally sets in, but present-day White recalls thinking at the time: “This is only the beginning.”

Sleeper Star: Is it cheating to call a younger version of the titular star a “sleeper” star? Well, I’m doing it regardless. Perhaps the most stunning part of the first episode is footage of a 10-year-old White being asked what he wants to be when he grows up, and responding that his ambition is to be a pro snowboarder.

Most Pilot-y Line: “You know, the thing with Shaun growing up, what I remember most,” White’s brother Jesse recalls, “is just he had this motor. Like, he was always on. So energetic that he’d just be a little shit. He’d just run around, he’d punch you, he’d wrestle. He’d always wanna, like, express himself physically… and he was fearless.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Even if you only pay attention to snowboarding once every four years, Shaun White: The Last Run is an entertaining story that quickly gets you invested in the snowboarder’s whole story.

Scott Hines is an architect, blogger and proficient internet user based in Louisville, Kentucky who publishes the widely-beloved Action Cookbook Newsletter.