West Vancouver, British Columbia » put a double cork in it.

Action-sports icon Shaun White parlayed one of snowboarding’s most difficult tricks — the double cork — to win his second Olympic gold medal Wednesday night in the men’s halfpipe at Cypress Mountain. And on his final run he gave fans a show with a double McTwist 12, a move with 3½ rotations and two flips that led to gasps.

“I just felt like I didn’t come all the way to Vancouver not to pull out the big guns,” he said. “It was the savvy thing to do. Saucy. Keep it weird.”

Wearing a Navy bandana with white stars around his face like a bandit, White tore through his first run with impressive back-to-back

double corks, a frontside 540 and backside 9 — a string of tricks so strong no one could catch him in the second go around.

Just before starting his final run and already assured the gold medal, a U.S. coach said to White, “A double, double Mack at the end.”

White, 23, was game. he laid down a spectacular, circus-like run that culminated with the double McTwist on a night the United States picked up two more medals. Scotty Lago of New Hampshire hung on for the bronze medal after Finland’s Peetu Piroinen snagged the silver in his second run. Louie Vito, a Utahn, had two solid runs but finished fifth and Greg Bretz of Mammoth Lakes was 12th as all four U.S. riders reached the final.

despite the surfer-casual aura surrounding snowboarding, White prepared for the Olympics seriously. in 2009, Red Bull built a private $1 million halfpipe high in the Rocky Mountains where White honed some of the sport’s most difficult and dangerous tricks. The Silverton, Colo., facility is 500 feet long, 22-feet deep.

The trick that has received the most attention is the double cork, which consists of two back flips. That’s the maneuver Olympic contender Kevin Pearce tried when he hit his head in December and suffered

serious brain trauma. Although boarders fly through the air like trapeze artists without safety nets, few suffer life-threatening injuries.

White was nervous about his first run despite the meticulous preparations. “I know I had it down but the Olympics are pretty heavy,” he told a television interviewer. “I was sweating it a little.”

White might have surfaced out of the renegade skateboard and snowboard culture of Southern California, but he has made the transition from X-Games legend to the Olympics mainstream as easily as a 180-degree turn. with magnetism befitting his celebrity, White charmed the Olympic community four years ago in winning the gold medal with straggly red hair flowing in the Alpine breeze.

“The Flying Tomato,” as he is called, has used his allure to earn about $8 million annually. Forbes Magazine named the skateboard/snowboard star the highest paid athlete competing in the Vancouver Games. His major sponsors include Burton snowboards, Red Bull, AT&T and HP. White also has a line of clothing with Target, underscoring the deft balance between remaining ultra cool and dancing with Corporate America. White wasn’t worried about those things Wednesday, saying his next move is to sleep.

“And then take on the world,” he added.

» Shaun White did a trick on his last run called a double McTwist 12. The move features three and a half rotations and two flips.

» he also did a trick called the double cork, which consists of two back flips, that has received much attention.

Snowboarding » Shaun White flips out in gold-medal runs.