International sports have their dominant figures - men and women who are so good that they change the face of their respective sporting landscape.
Golf has Tiger Woods. Tennis has Roger Federer and the Williams sisters. Michael Phelps is swimming's stand-out performer and Tony Hawk is the undisputed king of skateboarding.
Snowboarding's global superstar is 22-year-old Shaun White.
Today, New Zealand snowsports fans have a chance to watch the international rider - nicknamed the "Flying Tomato" - when he takes part in his first event in this country, at Cardrona Alpine Resort.
The lanky, ginger-haired Californian won gold in the halfpipe at the 2006 Winter Olympics at Turino and holds a record 14 medals from the Winter X-Games.
His appearance at Cardrona is a coup for New Zealand's winter sports fans.
He told the Otago Daily Times yesterday he had decided during the flight down under last week to enter the New Zealand Burton Open.
"I just thought `why not?"'
