History Made: Shaun White Wins Team USA's 100th Winter Games Gold Medal

Team USA's Shaun White, one of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games' biggest stars, won a gold medal Wednesday morning that holds additional prestige: the 100th for the United States in the Winter Olympics.

White won the men's halfpipe final, where in his third and final run he came back from second place to edge out Japan's Ayumu Hirano.

White went into the race with a chip on his shoulder -- in Sochi, he failed to medal in the event, placing fourth. But his near-perfect run finished another title White was seeking: He is the first snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals. 

In the qualifying round, White put up a commanding 98.5 score, the highest of the night. And White will go into the halfpipe final with a chip on his shoulder after placing fourth in Sochi. 

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Chloe Kim's soaring performance in the halfpipe Tuesday morning in Pyeongchang earned the U.S. its 99th gold medal, setting fellow snowboarder White up to seize the 100th.

Skiing star Mikaela Shiffrin missed out on the 100th gold medal for Team USA, having been thwarted twice by dangerous winds that have been postponing her events.

She looks to defend her slalom gold medal from Sochi, and her chance of standing atop the podium is strong -- she is the youngest-ever Olympic slalom champion and the first woman to win three consecutive slalom world titles in 78 years. She is a heavy favorite in the slalom and the giant slalom. 

White's 100th gold continues an American tradition that stretches back to the first medal ever won at a Winter Olympics by any country, a feat accomplished by a man from Lake Placid, New York, who shocked the rest of the world, according to a history of the feat posted on the Olympics' website.

In 1924, Charles Jewtraw was 24 and a two-time U.S. speedskating champion when he arrived at the first Winter Games in Chamonix, a resort in the French Alps. (Initially just a week of winter sports put on by the International Olympic Committee, the event would be retroactively deemed the first Olympic Winter Games.)

Photos of Jewtraw from the time show a lean man with a mop of dark hair who wore tights and a turtleneck when he raced.

A Finn named Clas Thunberg was the man to beat in the first event, the 500 meters, according to the Olympics' account, and Thunberg indeed would win three other speedskating events that year.

But Jewtraw "drew gasps from the spectators" when he zoomed away to start his heat. He burned up the oval in just 44.00 seconds, beating two Norwegians and Thunberg, who wound up in a tie for third.

Jewtraw didn't place in his two other races at Chamonix and he didn't compete in another Olympics. But he was inducted into the National Speedskating Hall of Fame in 1963.

"Humility and gentlemanly conduct were also Jewtraw trademarks," the Lake Placid Hall of Fame notes.

Today, his gold medal is in the Smithsonian's collection.

The 100 gold medals that the U.S. have won so far are a fraction of those won in Olympic history. Team USA is traditionally more dominant in the Summer Games — Norway has more winter gold medals than the U.S. — and there are more events in the summer as well.

100 Gold Medals for Team USA

#	Date	Name	Sport	Class	Event
1	Jan 26, 1924	Charley Jewtraw	Speedskating	Men	500m
2*	Feb 17, 1928	Jennison Heaton	Skeleton	Men	Skeleton
3*	Feb 17, 1928	Team	Bobsledding	Men	Four
4	Feb 4, 1932	Jack Shea	Speedskating	Men	500m
5	Feb 4, 1932	Irving Jaffee	Speedskating	Men	5,000m
6	Feb 5, 1932	Jack Shea	Speedskating	Men	1,500m
7	Feb 8, 1932	Irving Jaffee	Speedskating	Men	10,000m
8	Feb 9, 1932	Curtis Stevens / Hubert Stevens	Bobsledding	Men	Two
9	Feb 15, 1932	Team	Bobsledding	Men	Four
10	Feb 15, 1936	Ivan Brown / Al Washbond	Bobsledding	Men	Two
11	Feb 5, 1948	Gretchen Fraser	Alpine Skiing	Women	Slalom
12	Feb 5, 1948	Dick Button	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
13	Feb 7, 1948	Team	Bobsledding	Men	Four
14	Feb 14, 1952	Andrea Mead-Lawrence	Alpine Skiing	Women	Giant Slalom
15	Feb 16, 1952	Ken Henry	Speedskating	Men	500m
16	Feb 20, 1952	Andrea Mead-Lawrence	Alpine Skiing	Women	Slalom
17	Feb 21, 1952	Dick Button	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
18	Feb 1, 1956	Hayes Jenkins	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
19	Feb 2, 1956	Tenley Albright	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
20	Feb 23, 1960	Carol Heiss	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
21	Feb 26, 1960	David Jenkins	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
22	Feb 28, 1960	Team	Ice Hockey	Men	Ice Hockey
23	Feb 4, 1964	Terry McDermott	Speedskating	Men	500m
24	Feb 10, 1968	Peggy Fleming	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
25	Feb 9, 1972	Dianne Holum	Speedskating	Women	1,500m
26	Feb 10, 1972	Anne Henning	Speedskating	Women	500m
27	Feb 11, 1972	Barbara Cochran	Alpine Skiing	Women	Slalom
28	Feb 6, 1976	Sheila Young	Speedskating	Women	500m
29	Feb 12, 1976	Peter Mueller	Speedskating	Men	1,000m
30	Feb 13, 1976	Dorothy Hamill	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
31	Feb 15, 1980	Eric Heiden	Speedskating	Men	500m
32	Feb 16, 1980	Eric Heiden	Speedskating	Men	5,000m
33	Feb 19, 1980	Eric Heiden	Speedskating	Men	1,000m
34	Feb 21, 1980	Eric Heiden	Speedskating	Men	1,500m
35	Feb 23, 1980	Eric Heiden	Speedskating	Men	10,000m
36	Feb 24, 1980	Team	Ice Hockey	Men	Ice Hockey
37	Feb 13, 1984	Debbie Armstrong	Alpine Skiing	Women	Giant Slalom
38	Feb 16, 1984	Bill Johnson	Alpine Skiing	Men	Downhill
39	Feb 16, 1984	Scott Hamilton	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
40	Feb 19, 1984	Phil Mahre	Alpine Skiing	Men	Slalom
41	Feb 20, 1988	Brian Boitano	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
42	Feb 22, 1988	Bonnie Blair	Speedskating	Women	500m
43	Feb 10, 1992	Bonnie Blair	Speedskating	Women	500m
44	Feb 13, 1992	Donna Weinbrecht	Freestyle Skiing	Women	Moguls
45	Feb 14, 1992	Bonnie Blair	Speedskating	Women	1,000m
46	Feb 20, 1992	Cathy Turner	Short-Track SSK	Women	500m
47	Feb 21, 1992	Kristi Yamaguchi	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
48	Feb 13, 1994	Tommy Moe	Alpine Skiing	Men	Downhill
49	Feb 15, 1994	Diann Roffe-Steinrotter	Alpine Skiing	Women	Super G
50	Feb 18, 1994	Dan Jansen	Speedskating	Men	1,000m
51	Feb 19, 1994	Bonnie Blair	Speedskating	Women	500m
52	Feb 23, 1994	Bonnie Blair	Speedskating	Women	1,000m
53	Feb 24, 1994	Cathy Turner	Short-Track SSK	Women	500m
54	Feb 11, 1998	Jonny Moseley	Freestyle Skiing	Men	Moguls
55	Feb 11, 1998	Picabo Street	Alpine Skiing	Women	Super G
56	Feb 17, 1998	Team	Ice Hockey	Women	Ice Hockey
57	Feb 18, 1998	Nikki Stone	Freestyle Skiing	Women	Aerials
58	Feb 18, 1998	Eric Bergoust	Freestyle Skiing	Men	Aerials
59	Feb 20, 1998	Tara Lipinski	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
60	Feb 10, 2002	Kelly Clark	Snowboarding	Women	Halfpipe
61	Feb 11, 2002	Ross Powers	Snowboarding	Men	Halfpipe
62	Feb 12, 2002	Casey FitzRandolph	Speedskating	Men	500m
63	Feb 17, 2002	Chris Witty	Speedskating	Women	1,000m
64	Feb 19, 2002	Derek Parra	Speedskating	Men	1,500m
65	Feb 19, 2002	Jill Bakken	Bobsledding	Women	Two
66	Feb 20, 2002	Tristan Gale	Skeleton	Women	Skeleton
67	Feb 20, 2002	Jim Shea Jr.	Skeleton	Men	Skeleton
68	Feb 20, 2002	Apolo Anton Ohno	Short-Track SSK	Men	1,500m
69	Feb 21, 2002	Sarah Hughes	Figure Skating	Women	Singles
70	Feb 11, 2006	Chad Hedrick	Speedskating	Men	5,000m
71	Feb 12, 2006	Shaun White	Snowboarding	Men	Halfpipe
72	Feb 13, 2006	Hannah Teter	Snowboarding	Women	Halfpipe
73	Feb 13, 2006	Joey Cheek	Speedskating	Men	500m
74	Feb 14, 2006	Ted Ligety	Alpine Skiing	Men	Combined
75	Feb 16, 2006	Seth Wescott	Snowboarding	Men	Boardercross
76	Feb 18, 2006	Shani Davis	Speedskating	Men	1,000m
77	Feb 24, 2006	Julia Mancuso	Alpine Skiing	Women	Giant Slalom
78	Feb 25, 2006	Apolo Anton Ohno	Short-Track SSK	Men	500m
79	Feb 13, 2010	Hannah Kearney	Freestyle Skiing	Women	Moguls
80	Feb 15, 2010	Seth Wescott	Snowboarding	Men	Boardercross
81	Feb 17, 2010	Lindsey Vonn	Alpine Skiing	Women	Downhill
82	Feb 17, 2010	Shani Davis	Speedskating	Men	1,000m
83	Feb 17, 2010	Shaun White	Snowboarding	Men	Halfpipe
84	Feb 18, 2010	Evan Lysacek	Figure Skating	Men	Singles
85	Feb 21, 2010	Bode Miller	Alpine Skiing	Men	Combined
86	Feb 25, 2010	Bill Demong	Nordic Combined	Men	Individual, Large
87	Feb 27, 2010	Team	Bobsledding	Men	Four
88	Feb 8, 2014	Sage Kotsenburg	Snowboarding	Men	Slopestyle
89	Feb 9, 2014	Jamie Anderson	Snowboarding	Women	Slopestyle
90	Feb 12, 2014	Kaitlyn Farrington	Snowboarding	Women	Halfpipe
91	Feb 13, 2014	Joss Christensen	Freestyle Skiing	Men	Slopestyle
92	Feb 17, 2014	Meryl Davis / Charlie White	Figure Skating	Mixed	Ice Dancing
93	Feb 18, 2014	David Wise	Freestyle Skiing	Men	Halfpipe
94	Feb 19, 2014	Ted Ligety	Alpine Skiing	Men	Giant Slalom
95	Feb 20, 2014	Maddie Bowman	Freestyle Skiing	Women	Halfpipe
96	Feb 21, 2014	Mikaela Shiffrin	Alpine Skiing	Women	Slalom
97	Feb 11, 2018	Red Gerard	Snowboarding	Men	Slopestyle
98	Feb 12, 2018	Jamie Anderson	Snowboarding	Women	Slopestyle
99	Feb 13, 2018	Chloe Kim	Snowboarding	Women	Halfpipe
100	Feb 13, 2018	Shaun White	Snowboarding	Men	Halfpipe

* Exact order of the 2nd and 3rd gold medals is uncertain.
Source: olympics.org