In a pair of videos shot Monday and provided to The Associated Press, White addresses his fans directly in one and speaks about his experience in Russia in the other.
"I go up and down," White says. "I'm excited, then I'm not excited because I'm, not nervous, but just kind of antsy. And it builds and snowballs into other things, and it's just a lot of mixed feelings rolled up into one. It's the day before the big day."
The halfpipe contest is Tuesday, and White could become the seventh athlete to win three straight golds in an individual Winter Olympics sport.
He makes a passing reference to his late call to pull out of the slopestyle contest — a decision that sparked criticism in some circles.
"You're the best," he tells the fans. "You support me through the decisions I make, the training regimen. You show up to the contests. You watch it on TV, and I feel it. ... I want to do my best, not only for myself but for you guys. Wish me luck and here we go."
White's parents and his brother and sister are with him in the mountains above Sochi and he said that's made a big difference in the hectic lead-up to his big day at the Olympics.
"That's what makes me a normal person at the end of the day," he says. "They don't care what happens. They don't care what the media has to say or other riders have to say, or anything about anything. It's just family."
White would be the first U.S. man to win three straight gold medals at a Winter Games and would join speed skater Bonnie Blair as only the second American overall.
It's been a rough few days of training for White. First, he tackled the slopestyle course and decided to pull out of the event. Then, he headed over to the halfpipe, which has been heavily criticized for a number of problems — too steep on the sides, bad snow, bumpy on the bottom.
After training Monday, White said: "It's nothing we haven't dealt with before at competitions. It's just hard when it's the Olympics."
SKIING PIONEERS
Keri Herman just laughs when asked if she feels like a mother hen out on the mountain in a sport littered with teenagers and 20-somethings.
Last time the 30-year-old American slopestyle skier checked, there were no guidelines on how long you can make a living flinging yourself over a series of slick rails and mettle-testing jumps.
"Our sport is so young we don't even know how old you can get," she said. "We're still the first ones doing it."
Getting through will be difficult in a deep and talented field. Canadians Kaya Turski, Kim Lamarre and Dara Howell took three of the top four spots in the X Games last month, with the only skier separating them — American Maggie Voisin — out of the Olympics due to a fractured leg.
"I definitely think (a sweep) is possible," Howell said. "I think it is going to be a good show and USA has a really strong squad too. We will try to break their run of winning (snowboarding) slopestyle."
A few days after slopestyle snowboarding provided an electric Olympic debut, slopestyle skiing follows suit. The equipment might be different, but many of the tricks are the same. Spins, flips and fancy grabs are all part of the show, with some of them starting with the skiers riding backward down the hill.
Oh, and did they forget to mention the prospect of having four things — two poles and two skis — to obey marching orders instead of just one board?
"I'm a skier, so I think we're a little bit cooler than the snowboarders," American Devin Thomas said.
Herman, a former hockey player, wasn't drawn to the sport for its cool factor. She loved the snow. She loved challenging herself to see what she could do and she loved that she could see it growing.
Now she's at the Olympics, validation of sorts for her decision to stick with it after she found sponsorship offers dry up as she eased her way out of slopestyle's target demographic.
"I've struggled with sponsors recently just because of the number on paper," she said, referring to her age. "It's frustrating. It is specifically because of my age."
A medal, perhaps a gold one, on the challenging Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course would make history, but Herman is also aware it might not lead to businesses beating down her door to give her the kind of money that means she can stop the side jobs she works to make ends meet.
"Will it help, you never know," she said. "It would be nice to find out."
PLAYOFFS ON THE LINE
Russia has a chance to ride the hometown advantage to another victory when it plays Japan on Tuesday in Olympic women's hockey.
The Russians were spurred by a boisterous home crowd to a 4-1 win over Germany in the opener, and there was even some excitement about the game in the United States. Forward Yekaterina Pashkevich, who lives in Massachusetts, told the Olympic News Service that her boyfriend, Mark, watched the game against the Germans on TV.
"I got phone calls from my friends over there and they were telling me they were holding pajama parties while watching the game," she told ONS. "My boyfriend said his phone was blowing up with all the calls he was taking from people who were so excited about our win."
At 41, Paskevich is the oldest player ever in Olympic women's hockey.
But she's hardly the only veteran.
Canadian forward Hayley Wickenheiser has played in all five Olympics since the sport was added to the Winter Games in 1998. And Sweden goalie Kim Martin Hasson, who is expected to start against Germany on Tuesday after sitting out the opener, would be the first female goalie to have played in four Olympics.
And she is only 28, having debuted in Salt Lake in 2002 at the age of 15.
Martin Hasson has played in 222 games for the Swedish national team, including eight world championships.
"When I started out as a little girl, I never had thoughts about playing in any Olympics," she told ONS. "It's been a long journey, but the years have gone by pretty quickly."
A victory on Tuesday by Russia or Sweden would all-but clinch a spot in the quarterfinals, while a loss by Germany or Japan would effectively eliminate them from the playoffs.
German coach Peter Kathan said he thinks his team matches up better with Sweden, which beat Japan 1-0 in the opener, than with the Russians.
"Sweden is very compact, they have perfect forwards and it won't be an easy game," he said.
CAMERA, NOT TERRORIST
That drone you might have spotted hovering and zipping around the Sochi Olympic slopes isn't searching for terrorists or protesters hiding behind the fir trees.
It's being used to transmit live video of snowboard and ski jump competitions to a screen near you.
Unlike military drones, which often look like a remote-controlled airplane, the creature floating around Sochi resembles a huge flying spider. Drones are increasingly common at sporting events, and these Olympics is the highest-profile showcase yet for their use in broadcasting.
Contributor: The Associated Press
