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It was a breathtaking moment until the crowd realized White was not seriously injured. White smacked his head recently in the X-Games. White has learned a bunch of new tricks that he plans to unleash this Wednesday, according to Hawk. Hawk is White's skateboard sponsor, but Hawk said it has been understandably difficult getting White to focus on skateboarding during the past year. On Monday, Hawk talked a little bit about what separates White from the rest of his competitors. Germany overtook the United States in the medal count, and Canada now trails the U.S. Tuesday saw more exciting Winter Olympics action in Vancouver.

Scroll down to watch a video of the private halfpipe. Shaun White's private halfpipe is a massive snowboarding superpipe that was built in late 2009 in Silverton, Colo. The closeness of this contest -- the biggest night on the halfpipe this side of the Olympics -- provides the proof that risks must be taken to win. White, the multimillionaire and mass-marketing sensation, is pushing the envelope with his new trick. A good story because it ended well, but one that will certainly bring even more scrutiny to a sport that has been hit with a number of bad landings and injuries over the past few months. Between the end of practice and his first competition run, there was footage of him watching the wreck in super slo-mo, which makes it look worse than in real time. I cracked my head pretty good. But minutes after the wreck, White was heading down the pipe again for another practice run. Which was the story during that practice run, when he misjudged his position above the pipe and came down hard, slamming his face against the pipe and falling flat on the ice. The 2006 Olympic champion hurt himself on the newest, most unpredictable and most dangerous trick in his repertoire: the Double McTwist 1260, in which he hurtles himself 15-20 feet above the halfpipe, then does two head-over-heels flips and 3 rotations.

Still, it was a frighteningly close call with the Olympics only two weeks away. A sick wreck in practice Friday night that will be replayed and remembered -- maybe even longer than his comeback an hour later that earned the world's best halfpipe rider a third straight Winter X Games title. His face smacked against the halfpipe, his neck snapped back and his helmet popped off and flew 15 feet in the air. Sign up to receive news updates that matter to you. This video has been removed from your Favorites.