Shaun White Net Worth 2024: Inside the Snowboard Superstars $65 Million Empire

Shaun White is the most successful American snowboarder, now retired from the sport. The five-time Olympian snowboarder has won three Olympic medals, setting the world record in the sport.

As of 2024, Shaun White’s net worth is $65 million.

White, also known as The Flying Tomato because of his red hair, remains one of the highest-paid Olympians of all time.

However, he’s recognized beyond his sporting prowess; White is an investor, a businessman, and has signed some of the most profitable endorsement deals in the industry.

Want to learn more about Shaun White and his success? This post is for you.

Shaun White’s Net Worth: Full Breakdown

For the most part, Shaun White’s net worth comes from his endorsement deals, with a smaller portion coming from prize money. However, since his retirement, the famous snowboarder has invested in quite a lot of companies, founded his own ventures, and keeps growing his fortune by millions every year.

After thorough research of his activities and earnings over the years, we’ve gathered sufficient data to create a detailed breakdown of White’s net worth:

6 Fun Facts about Shaun White

1. Early life: Born on September 3, 1986, in San Diego, California.
2. Heart condition: Underwent two open-heart surgeries before age one.
3. Olympic medals: Three-time Olympic gold medalist in snowboarding.
4. X Games success: Holds 18 X Games medals in snowboarding.
5. Business ventures: Launched lifestyle brand Whitespace in 2022.
6. Music career: Played guitar in the band Bad Things.

Latest News & Updates

Recently, White has been making waves for his involvement in business and lifestyle projects.

He launched his own brand, Whitespace, in 2022, offering a variety of athletic equipment and apparel. Moreover, he announced a new snowsports property, The Snow League, set to debut in March 2025, further solidifying his entrepreneurial endeavors in the winter sports industry.

White has partnered with prominent investors like Ares Management and David Blitzer to make this venture a reality.

On the personal front, Shaun White and his girlfriend, actress Nina Dobrev, continue to enjoy the limelight, often sharing glimpses of their adventures together.

The couple recently celebrated White’s mother’s birthday in Barbados, a getaway filled with joyous moments like Shaun performing a backflip into the ocean.

Early Life and Education

Shaun Roger White was born on September 3, 1986, in San Diego California.

His parents are Cathy, a waitress, and Roger, who worked for the San Clemente water department. Shaun has three older siblings and was born with a congenital heart defect called Tetralogy of Fallot, which required two open-heart operations before the age of one.

“Congenital heart disease was a big part of my life when I was a lot younger. I was told I couldn’t do certain things, but honestly my parents let me find my own boundaries, and of course, I just wanted to fly. I wanted to be in the air,” White shared at the Children’s HeartLink Global Gathering in 2022.

When he was young, White and his family spent time at Okemo Mountain Ski Resorts and the San Bernardino Mountains. This is where he started snowboarding, following in the footsteps of his brother. White had started competing in snowboarding competitions by the age of seven, and he also found a passion for skateboarding.

He was so good at skateboarding that when he met famous skateboarder Tony Hawk at the San Diego skatepark, Hawk became his mentor. White was nine years old at the time.

Personal Life

Shaun White has never been married.

He dated Sarah Barthel, a Phantogram vocalist and keyboardist, between 2013 and 2019. In early 2020, he started dating Nina Dobrev, the actress most recognized for her role in The Vampire Diaries. The couple is still dating.

Shaun White Net Worth: Going Pro and Winning Three Olympic Gold Medals

White showed impressive skills in both skateboarding and snowboarding from an early age. With the help of his mentor Tony Hawk, the nine-year-old athlete turned pro at the age of 16. White shared:

Tony was my hero and I was too terrified to talk to him so every time I saw him at the skate park I would try to impress him with my skateboarding in the hopes that one day he would say something to me.

At this point, White was winning titles on his skateboard, such as the Action Sports Tour Champion title. He was also the first person who competed in and won both the Summer and Winter X Games in two sports.

However, the sport he truly excelled in, the one that led him to win three Olympic gold medals, was snowboarding.

Shaun White’s Snowboarding Success

Following in his brother’s footsteps, White decided to switch from skiing to snowboarding when he was only six years old. When he was seven years old, he got his first sponsorship.

During his successful career, snowboarder Shaun White has participated in a total of five Winter Olympics, as well as in the Winter X Games. He won gold medals at the 2006, 2010, and 2018 Olympics, and in the snowboard halfpipe event.

Let’s take a closer look at his success and performances at the Olympics.

White at the Winter Olympics

White’s first Olympics performance was in 2006 when he won his first Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe. He almost left the competition when he scored 37.7 after his first run in qualifications.

However, in the finals, he recorded a score of 46.8, coming very close to the highest possible score of 50.

His next performance at the Olympic Games came in 2010 in Vancouver, where White once again won the gold medal in the halfpipe. He ended his second run with the Double McTwist 1260, which he titled The Tomahawk.

This run was a record score of 48.4 out of 50.

White’s third Winter Olympics was in 2014 when he finished fourth in the halfpipe snowboarding event.

At the 2018 Winter Olympics, he won his third Olympic gold medal in the halfpipe event with a score of 97.75, the 100th medal won for the US at the Olympics.

He almost didn’t qualify for the team since, while training for the competition, he was injured and his face required 62 stitches.

 

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The final performance at the Olympics for White was in 2022 when he finished fourth in the halfpipe. During the Winter Games, he announced that he would no longer compete in the Olympics and later on, he retired from the sport altogether.

Other Successes and Medals

White got his third snowboard halfpipe title at the US Open Snowboarding Championships.

At the 2007 Open, he was hailed the First Burton Global Open Champion, winning $100,000 as the Global Open Champ, $20,000 for first place in the halfpipe, and $90,000 for third place slopestyle – as well as a Corvette.

White’s competition and his win at the 2009 SuperPipe at the Winter X Games XIII was rather controversial. White had six hits and, while Kevin Pearce had fewer and went bigger, his first hit was simpler than that of White. Therefore, the judges decided that White deserved the winning score because he had one more hit and started with a more technical trick. This win made Shaun White the second competitor to win a gold medal at the SuperPipe at the X Games in consecutive years.

In addition to this, he won a gold medal in slopestyle and won the FIS World Cup Men’s halfpipe event at Cypress Mountain.

In 2011, White didn’t reach the finals in the slopestyle, but he claimed his fourth straight gold in the Winter X Games, which took place in Aspen, Colorado. A year later, he became the first person in the history of the Winter X Games to score 100 in the snowboard SuperPipe.

White’s sixth SuperPipe victory came just a year later, making him the second participant with as many consecutive victories, right after Tucker Hibbert. In December of the same year, he won third place in the Pipe & Slope contest in Copper Mountain at the FIS Snowboard World Cup.

Career Earnings, Milestones, and Records

Snowboarding has long been White’s passion – and his strongest skill.

Thanks to his talent and hard work, White has cemented his name in history as the person with most Olympic gold medals won in snowboarding – three in total.

In addition to this, White has won 18 X Games medals for snowboarding during his career: 13 gold, three silver, and two bronze. Among the X Games’ gold medals is the first quadruple win streak by a male athlete in the snowboard slopestyle.

In total, he has won 23 X Games medals, including five medals in skateboarding.

Athletes at the Winter Olympics aren’t only paid for their participation. The US Olympic Committee also offers large rewards to athletes who bring home a medal for the country. USA Today has reported that Olympians get the following in reward money:

• $37,500 for each gold medal
• $22,500 for each silver medal
• $15,000 for each bronze medal

If White were to win in a team, he would split these sums with teammates, but since his winnings come from individual events, this means he got the whole prize pot for himself each time he won.

These amounts were handed out starting from the 2018 Winter Olympics, where Shaun White reportedly earned $37,500 in prize money. Before that, American Olympic athletes who won gold medals made $25,000, while silver medal winners made $15,000 and bronze medal winners made $10,000. This would mean that, for his previous two gold medals at the Olympics, White was rewarded $50,000 in total.

Let’s not forget that White holds the world record for the most X Games gold medals in history won by a snowboarder, which most likely added quite the sum into his net worth, as well, though the details have not been disclosed.

Here is a summary of Shaun White’s biggest career milestones to date:

• Three-time Olympic gold medalist in men’s snowboard halfpipe
• 13-time gold medalist at X Games in men’s snowboard slopestyle and superpipe
• World record for most Olympics and X Games gold medals won by a snowboarder
• The only athlete to score a perfect 100 during X Games’ superpipe competition
• Youngest athlete in the world to win an Olympic gold medal in snowboarding

@olympics

How do you sum up 16 years of the greatest Olympic snowboarding career of all time?. Thank you for everything @Shaunwhite. #OlympicSpirit #Olympics

♬ original sound – Olympics

In 2009, White received the Revolver Golden Gods Award for Most Metal Athlete.

What Else Does Shaun White Invest In?

Shaun White’s net worth mostly comes from his success as an athlete and is sourced from his endorsement deals and prize money.

However, the famous snowboarder has dabbled in a variety of other industries as well. He has a career in entertainment, having appeared in movies and music videos, and even played in a band!

He is an entrepreneur with his own businesses, a major investor, and a true real estate mogul. Let’s take a look at what else makes White’s net worth these days.

Career in Entertainment

In 2011, White had cameo appearances as himself in Friends with Benefits. This wasn’t his first foray into entertainment though. In 2004, he starred in the documentary The White Album and, a year later, he starred in another snowboarding documentary titled First Descent.

In 2007, the athlete appeared on The Girls Next Door, the E! reality TV show, taking on the role of a snowboarding teacher for Bridget Marquardt, Kendra Wilkinson, and Holly Madison.

Two years later, he starred in Don’t Look Down, a film that is focused on his journey in snowboarding.

Some other appearances on TV for Shaun White include:

• Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in 2011
• American Dad!: Da Flippity Flop in 2013
• The Smurfs 2 in 2013 (voiceover)
• Cloud 9 in 2014
• Stretch in 2014
• Henry Danger: Toon In for Danger in 2018

Shaun White also appeared in the music videos for The Black Keys and Thirty Seconds to Mars.

Music Career

In 2012, Shaun formed a band with Davis LeDuke (frontman), Anthony Sanudo (guitarist), Jared Palomar (bass player), and Lena Zawaideh (drummer). They called the band Bad Things and Shaun was their lead guitarist.

White’s band signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records in 2013 and released their self-titled debut album a year later. The first song from the album was Caught Inside, which streamed on SoundCloud.

Following the album release, Bad Things played two shows in New York City, followed by a headlining run during a tour in 2013.

In 2014, Bad Things released the new song “Ditty” and two acoustic versions of their existing songs. However, in 2015 and 2016, LeDuke and Zawaideh parted ways from the band. This was followed by the sexual harassment and breach of contract lawsuit against White by Zawaideh in 2016.

Business Ventures and Investments

In 1999, White appeared in the video game Cool Boarders 4. In 2001, he appeared in Shaun Palmer’s Pro Snowboarder. White’s self-released video games are:

• Shaun White Snowboarding, published by Ubisoft in 2008
• Shaun White Snowboarding: World Stage in 2009
• Shaun White Skateboarding in 2010

In 2016, the famous athlete acquired a minority stake in Mammoth Resorts. He is today a part-owner of the Snow Summit, Mammoth Mountain, Bear Mountain, and June Mountain ski areas, which is where he learned to snowboard with his family. He reportedly spent $38 million to buy Bear Mountain and Snow Summit.

In 2014, White took ownership of the Air + Style, a festival of music and snowboarding, and relocated it from Austria to Los Angeles. In 2021, he canceled the festival due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

More recently, in 2022, White launched a lifestyle brand called Whitespace. He was famously sponsored by Burton Snowboards for years, but his contract expired before the 2018 Olympics.

Fast forward five years and he announced the launch of his own brand, which released athletic equipment: a line of outwear, streetwear apparel, and snowboard hard goods.

 

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Shaun White is a partner at Unrivaled Sports and through this venture, he invests in a variety of businesses and causes. For instance, in June 2024, Unrivaled Sports invested in SNÖBAHN, the premier indoor action sports center with two Colorado locations.

In 2024, Shaun White announced that he is launching a new snowsports property that will debut next March, called The Snow League. The league has investment from David Blitzer’s Bolt Ventures, and Ares Management, among other partners.

“It’s always kind of been looming there. And most recently you get inspiration from leagues like World Surf League and Street League Skateboarding,” White said.

Endorsements

Over the years, the professional snowboarder has secured numerous endorsement deals with the likes of Red Bull, Adio, American Express, Target, Oakley, Hewlett-Packard, and Ubisoft.

His first endorsement deal was with Burton Snowboards, which started when he was only seven years old and lasted until 2018.

According to Forbes, White earned $9 million from endorsements in 2008 alone. This rounded to around $2 million a year per endorsement deal.

On top of this, while he was preparing for his fifth Olympics, sponsors spent $1.5 million in guaranteed payments just for his preparations!

Real Estate

Shaun White is what we would call an underground real estate mogul, managing multiple luxury properties around the world.

In 2014, he spent $8.94 million on a Malibu house, which he sold six years later for $11.8 million, making a healthy profit. He also sold a second Malibu property at around the same time for $8 million. These homes were part of a $27.5 million compound he placed on the market with the option to sell them separately.

In 2017, White sold his Hollywood Hills home for $6.7 million to Shark Tank’s Robert Herjavec.

The same year, he sold a four-bedroom home in Carlsbad, California for $1 million, and listed his New York City penthouse for $2.79 million. We don’t know if he sold this property, but he increased the asking price to $3 million in 2019.

In 2018, the athlete bought a second home in Hollywood Hills for $3.75 million, which he listed for sale in 2024 for $5 million.

As for the properties he most likely owns to date, he has a house in Encinitas, California, which he rents for $25,000 per month, a Utah condo, a $10.9 million oceanfront property in Malibu, and the $1.6 million Laurel Canyon home.

He also reportedly owns a property in Hollywood Hills, though we don’t know its value.

Based on this, we can say that Shaun White is quite the house flipper.

Cars

Shaun White is a fan of luxurious and elegant cars, and he has quite a few of them in his garage, including:

• Lamborghini Murcielago LP 640 worth $350,000
• BMW M6 worth $120,000
• 1966 Ford Mustang worth $110,000
• Lexus IS 300 worth $43,000

What Can We Learn from Shaun White’s Story?

Shaun White’s journey teaches us several valuable lessons.

First, his success as a professional skateboarder and snowboarder highlights the importance of passion and dedication to one’s craft. Starting from a young age, White pursued his dreams relentlessly, proving that passion in combination with hard work can lead to extraordinary achievements.

White’s career also demonstrates the value of versatility.

He has excelled in more than one sport, and therefore diversified his opportunities and skills, making a name for himself in the world of athletes. This versatility is further exemplified by his ventures into the entertainment and business world, showing that athletes can succeed beyond their primary sport.

Finally, White’s entrepreneurial spirit including launching his own video game and investing in various businesses, underscores the importance of exploring different income streams.