Snowboarding Preview: Shaun White Eyes Curtain Call; Kim Preps for Gold

(AP) -- The nicknames are retired. The mop of red hair that once served as Shaun White's signature look more than a decade ago is long gone.

The torch the now 35-year-old snowboarding icon carried so capably for so long since his first gold-medal-winning run down the halfpipe in Torino 16 years ago has been picked up by a series of newcomers who grew up watching him.

The group -- led by two-time Japanese silver medalist Ayumu Hirano -- will stand at the top of the pipe in Genting Snow Park looking to do what's only been done once in the last four Games: stand atop the podium with White and the rest of the sport looking up.

For the first time in his career, White will head into the Olympics not as the favorite.

White didn't lock up a spot on Team USA until the final days of qualifying and hasn't stood atop the medal stand since that pressure-packed final with Hirano and Australia's Scotty James in Pyeongchang.

He's back for what is almost certainly one last run, where he'll get an up-close look at a changing of the guard.

The Japanese, led by Hirano and world champion Yuto Totsuka, have dominated the halfpipe with the kind of boundary-pushing tricks that used to be White's domain.

Hirano became the first snowboarder to land a "triple cork" -- three head-over-board flips -- in competition in December, the next logical step in progression four years after White won gold by drilling consecutive double cork 1440s (four twists).

The increasingly high risk-reward nature of the sport adds a layer of uncertainty that the sport's marquee event has lacked.

At least on the men's side. Things are a bit clearer on the women's halfpipe, where American Chloe Kim will look to bookend the gold medal she captured as a fresh-faced teenager in Korea four years ago.

While Kim understands the pressure she will face in China as the only one in the competition with an Olympic gold medal at home, she's hardly out of her comfort zone. She came to Korea as the sport's Next Big Thing and left it as a champion while navigating a white-hot spotlight courtesy of her precociousness and her Korean heritage.

LINDSEY'S LONG RUN

American snowboardcross star Lindsey Jacobellis will make one final push to fill the only hole on her resume when the five-time world champion makes another bid Olympic gold.

JAMIE'S JOURNEY

Three-time Olympic medalist Jamie Anderson will attempt to extend her reign atop women's slopestyle when she vies for a third gold to join the ones she earned in Russia and Korea.

The 31-year-old Anderson, who landed a cab double cork 1080 for the first time in competition at Mammoth Mountain in January, believes she has yet to reach her peak.