Shaun White stood at the top of the Olympic halfpipe Tuesday night, hunched over, hands resting above his knees. He high-fived his coach, clapped his hands, then jumped in for a ride that would decide if all the calculated choices he had made over a winter full of injuries, distractions and angst would pay off.

One jump, 15 feet above the pipe, was perfect. The second one looked good, too.

Then, the trick they call the "Yolo" — the one a rival invented but White had turned into his own.

His snowboard skittered across the halfpipe on the landing. White finished the run with a flourish and raised his index finger, trying to woo the judges who know, as well as anyone, what he's done for his sport.

No sale. No medal, either. He finished fourth.

The world's best-known, most-successful and best-marketed snowboarder lost to a man they call the "I-Pod," and now, he may never hear the end of it.

"I would definitely say that tonight was just one of those nights," White said after falling to Iouri Podladtchikov, the 25-year-old Russian-born inventor of the 'Yolo.' "The tricks I learned getting ready for the competition will carry on for a couple years in this sport. It's a bummer. I had one of those nights."

The Japanese pair of 15-year-old Ayumu Hirano and 18-year-old Taku Hiraoka won silver and bronze, and the Americans were shut out on the halfpipe for the first time since the sport was introduced to the Olympics in 1998.

Almost unthinkable, especially since White joined the mix and won the first of his two gold medals in 2006.

He wanted to win two this year — one in halfpipe and one in the newly introduced sport of slopestyle — but ended up with none.

"In hindsight, maybe it wasn't the best move, but he's ambitious," said Jake Burton, the snowboarding guru and one of White's very first sponsors. "That's him. You wouldn't want to see him trade that in for anything."


SUPER LUCKY


There was only one way for Emil Joensson to sum up his bronze-medal performance at the Sochi Olympics.

"Steven Bradbury," the Swedish cross-country skier said. "I feel like him today."

Joensson's bronze in the men's freestyle sprint on Tuesday certainly brought back memories of Bradbury's classic gold medal in short track speedskating at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, when all of the Australian's rivals fell in front of him shortly before the finish.

An exhausted and aching Joensson had already given up on fighting for a medal, skiing dead last in the final and just cruising toward the finish, when three other skiers crashed in a heap in the soft snow on a tricky downhill section. Suddenly Joensson found himself in third place, and also found enough energy to stay there until the finish line.

"It was a crazy race for me," Joensson said. "I was super lucky. Right now I don't know if I should be happy or feel bad."


THE RUSSIAN KOREAN


New name, new country, nearly the same old Viktor Ahn.

The 28-year-old short track speedskater reached the podium in his return to the Olympics, giving his adopted country of Russia its first medal in the capricious sport.

The bronze Ahn won in the 1,500 meters on the first day of short track competition Monday was his fifth Olympic medal, and first since the 2006 Turin Games. A career-threatening knee injury in 2008 forced him to miss Vancouver four years ago.

"I had to think a lot of things over, then I was injured," he said through a translator. "It was my great pleasure to get back to the sport."

Born in Seoul, Ahn previously competed for South Korea as Ahn Hyun-soo, winning three golds and a bronze at his first two Olympics.

"It's fun to see him back," 1,500 champion Charles Hamelin of Canada said. "He was the one I looked at in 2006 and 2007. All the races I do with him are difficult and to be able to win the 1,500 was the best."

The red-haired Ahn got the loudest cheers from the mostly Russian fans at the Iceberg Skating Palace.

"It played a big role in my achievement," he said. "I would like to thank everyone for believing in me."


EYE GOT YOU 


With Bob Costas sidelined with an infection that has reddened both his eyes and blurred his vision, "Today" show anchor Matt Lauer filled in Tuesday on NBC's prime-time Olympics coverage.

Lauer, opening the broadcast, said Costas "looked a little like a loser in a prize fight." Costas has been wearing glasses since the start of the Sochi Olympics because of an infection in his left eye, and on Monday it spread to his other eye. It quickly became the topic of conversation on social media and sports talk radio.

Costas said he simply couldn't do the job because his eyes had become blurry, watery and sensitive to light. "I'm walking around, I might as well be playing 'Marco Polo,'" he said in a telephone call to the "Today" show Tuesday. "I have no idea where I am."

He said it's a viral infection that has to run its course, and he hopes things improve enough in the next few days so he can return to the broadcast.

Contributor: The Associated Press