US snowboarding legend Shaun White said Wednesday next year's Winter Olympics in Beijing will be his last.

The 35-year-old star told NBC television's Today program that he plans to call time on his Olympic career after what will be his fifth Winter Games.

"I haven't really said this too much, so it's going to feel weird coming out of my mouth, but this is I think my last run," the three-time Olympic halfpipe champion said.

White has been an ever-present in the US Winter Olympic team since first taking part in the 2006 Games in Turin, where he won the first of his three gold medals as a 19-year-old.

He successfully retained his title at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and then won a third gold medal at the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics.

"It's hard to talk about because my whole life I've kind of been looked at as somewhat superhuman, because I do these things (in the halfpipe)," White told NBC.

"I've prided myself on being that individual. And, man, realizing and admitting to myself and everyone else, 'yeah, I'm human'－it's taken a toll."

White was speaking ahead of a qualifying event in Colorado this weekend, where a win would all but guarantee his place in Beijing.

He will have another opportunity to qualify at a meeting in California next month, but could also head to Beijing as a discretionary pick.

White had, until Wednesday, left open the possibility that he might keep competing beyond 2022. But he has previously spoken at length about the toll the sport has taken on his body, including at Team USA's media summit in October.

At that summit, White talked about the dramatic evolution of the sport and trying to keep up. Tricks that were thought of as incredible earlier in his career have since become standard, he explained.

White also noted in October that he had just suffered a bad crash that slowed him for days－whereas in his younger years, he might have popped back up immediately.

AFP