X Games: Boy-next-door White isn’t ready to settle down or, on this day, to win

ASPEN, Colo. —  On the bright side, the fans loved Shaun White.

“I was proposed to, like, three times,” he said, after coming up just short Sunday night in the X Games superpipe competition.

Indeed, it was clear that although Steve Fisher won the gold, it was White, the red-haired star of the 2006 Turin Olympics, who has won the hearts.

“Did you accept any of those proposals?” a reporter asked.

“Almost,” White said with a nod and a smile. “One of them was really tempting. I told her I’d sleep on it and get back to her.”

Laughter filled the media tent and it seemed like Turin all over again, except for the color of medal hanging from the snowboarder’s neck.

And he can blame that, at least in part, on his triumph at Turin, as it propelled him far beyond the superpipe walls and into the stratosphere of superstardom.

The same athlete who went undefeated in 11 contests last winter hasn’t had time to snowboard this winter, and hadn’t competed since the U.S. Open last March.

What he has been doing is making commercials, filming a documentary, attending parties, appearing on late-night TV, counting his money, and attending more parties.

“This year I’m not really trying to be the contest kid,” said White, 20, who fell short of Fisher by a mere point, 92.00 to 91.00. “But I always come to the X Games.”

And he usually entertains.

After failing to catch Fisher on his third and final run in the best-of-three-run format, he went back to the top of the superpipe and nailed the same routine to show the fans he still had it, and they roared their approval.

In the media tent he talked of upcoming projects and the pens were scratching when he said he’d be in Vail next month to “hang out with Hugh Hefner’s girls” for an episode of the E! channel’s “The Girls Next Door.”

Actually, he’ll be teaching the three platinum blonds a thing or two about snowboarding, and hopes that they, in turn, might teach him a thing or two as well.

“So you know, life’s gotten rough,” the snowboarder joked.

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Puckett finds a groove

There is a place for aging Alpine racers: the skier-cross circuit.

But Aspen’s Casey Puckett does not ski like someone put to pasture. And, in fact, with skier-cross debuting as an Olympic sport in 2010, he might be eyeing a fifth trip to the Winter Games.

“If my body’s feeling up to it, I might give it a try,” Puckett, 34, said after winning his second X Games gold medal in an event dubbed Skier X here. He edged former Olympian Jake Fiala in a thrilling finish.

A third Olympian to have advanced to the final was Daron Rahlves, the most successful speed skier in U.S. history, newly retired from the World Cup circuit.

Although famously fast, Rahlves needs work on his starts, and getting off slowly was his undoing in the final, when he was clipped early and fell.

Puckett opened a comfortable lead, but Fiala found a fast line and almost caught Puckett near the bottom of the 3,500-foot course, as the two entered the final jump.

However, Puckett, seeing a human shadow approaching from the left, veered over and pinched his rival as the two took to the air. Fiala lost control and spun wildly into the safety net.

“I thought for sure that Daron was going to be my major competition and it turned out that my teammate, Jake, was the one hounding me,” Puckett said.

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UFOs over Aspen

Move over, freestyle motocross. Make way for snowmobile freestyle. The latter replaced the former for this year’s X Games and produced its first gold medalist, Chris Burandt, whose daredevilry included a back flip performed seemingly in slow motion over a 110-foot jump.

On a 500-pound snowmobile. In the frigid chill of an Aspen winter night, in front of an audience on national television.

“That’s the whole cool thing about these X Games,” said Burandt, of Kremmling, Colo, who registered a score of 96.33 to beat Norway’s Aleksander Nordgard (93.66) in head-to-head competition. “It opens people’s eyes to what snowmobile freestyle is all about.”

It’s about the same thing as freestyle motocross -- seat grabs, back flips, handlebar handstands, etc. -- but on a much heavier machine, and with much heavier consequences.

Burandt said double-back flips are not too far off.

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From fringe to forefront

Commentator Sal Masekela recalled that when he joined the X Games in 1999 there were only a few reporters “that people sent out reluctantly” and adds that now action sports are “defining our culture.”

This year the press room was packed with dozens of reporters and photographers working for various publications, including the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, USA Today and Rolling Stone magazine.

The International Olympic Committee is following the X Games lead -- Skier X will become the third X Games discipline to become an Olympic medal sport -- because of their appeal to key consumer age groups.

“It says that action sports is more than just a fringe situation,” Masekela continued. “They’re actually really defining a new form of athleticism.”

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Winners and losers

The French trio of Ophelie David, Valentine Scuotto and Meryll Boulangeat swept the women’s Skier X competition. “We have dreamed of a sweep, but when we realized it had come true, it was just tons and tons of joy,” David said.... Norway’s Andreas Wiig won gold in the snowboarding best-trick competition, needing only a 1080 in head-to-head competition against Travis Rice, who fell on his two attempts.... France’s Candide Thovex won the men’s skiing slopestyle competition with a 95.00.... The X Games, which set a single-day attendance record Saturday (31,200), drew a four-day total of 76,150.

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pete.thomas@latimes.com