Shaun White all but wraps up spot in his 5th Olympics

LAAX, Switzerland (AP) — Shaun White all but wrapped up a spot in his fifth Olympics on Thursday when he qualified for the finals of a contest in Switzerland and his nearest American pursuer failed to move on. White finished fifth in the qualifying round, while Chase Blackwell failed to make it to Saturday’s 12-man final. It means White, who came into the event as the fourth-ranked American in the World Snowboard Points List, cannot fall further down in that ranking, while Blackwell cannot move up. The U.S. has four spots on the men’s halfpipe team and is expected to use those rankings to fill out the last three spots. Taylor Gold has already secured a spot with a podium finish at a qualifying event in Colorado last month.