Shaun White
Snowboarding
United States
The Flying Tomato is all grown up. Since emerging on the world stage in Torino, where White was the rebel with the flowing red hair who won an electrifying gold on the half-pipe, the snowboarder has become a pitchman for American Express and HP; he also sells a clothing line at Target. Dude, you are so mainstream. Now 23, White insists he's not distracted by his business endeavors. It helps that Red Bull, another Tomato sponsor, built a private half-pipe for him in the Colorado backwoods so he could perfect his tricks for the Olympics, including the Double McTwist 1260 he just unveiled at a Grand Prix, in which he does a double backward flip with 3½ revolutions. "I've got some stuff in store," White says. "And I've been working on some tricks that will hopefully be a next-generation thing, you know what I mean?" It means the odds are he'll wow us once again.