Shaun White says 2022 Winter Games will be his last competition

Three-time Olympic gold medalist Shaun White said Saturday that the Beijing Games will be his last Olympics and last snowboarding competition.

Driving the news: "I think this will be my, well this will be my last competition too, which is pretty special," White, 35, told a news conference.

• White, who is competing at his fifth Games, had previously said that 2022 would be his last Olympics, NBC Olympics reports.
• "It's this and it's that, all these things are major things that brought me to this conclusion," White said, pointing to nagging knee and back issues, which have caused him to pull out of competitions and miss training, per NBC.

The big picture: Last year while battling a knee injury, White got lost during a competition and had to take a chairlift over the mountain alone.

• "I was watching ... the sun go down and it just hit me," he said.
• "It was very sad and a surreal moment but really joyous as well," said White, adding that he "broke down" a little before calling his friends and family to tell them of his decision.
• White won halfpipe golds at the 2006, 2010 and 2018 Olympic Games.

Go deeper:

• Axios Olympic coverage
• Shaun White will try to go out on top in final Winter Olympics