Shaun White said he plans to attend next February's Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo, saying he is "excited" to be a spectator for the first time in his career just days after reports emerged that he and fiancée Nina Dobrev have split.
The 39-year-old three-time Olympic gold medalist and founder of the Snow League told TODAY he will be "running around, definitely supporting my friends competing...and just taking it in." White, who retired from professional competition after finishing fourth in the halfpipe at the 2022 Beijing Games, added that the Milan Games "will be my first Winter Olympics where I'm not competing, so a lot of feelings there but, honestly, I'm excited to support and check it out." He also joked he "might have to bring the [long] hair back for that."
The comments were made five days after reports of the couple's breakup surfaced. A source told People that Dobrev, 36, was "devastated" and that the split was over differing desires about marriage and family, with the source saying Dobrev "wanted a family and wanted to get married and he didn't." Dobrev posted a TikTok on Sept. 5 that some interpreted as a hint that infidelity played a role; in the clip she lip-synched, "Advice for women trying to fix their man? ... he's got 10 other women trying to fix him too."
On the same day, an Instagram user commented on a Dobrev slideshow, alleging the actor had been threatened not to photograph White when he was reportedly with two women at a bar in Austin, Texas. An insider close to White told The US Sun that "there was absolutely no cheating" and said the women in question were a business manager, a member of his speaking team and a close friend.
Two days after the initial reports, Dobrev was photographed without the five-carat diamond engagement ring White proposed with last October. Multiple outlets reported that Dobrev is currently out of the country and being supported by family.
Earlier in August, White traveled to the Valle Nevado ski resort in Chile to shoot a campaign for his performance clothing company, Whitespace, with model Elizabeth Lake, who is 22. Lake posted images from the trip and wrote that the trip was "truly a bucket list trip and will surely be a difficult one to forget." White and Dobrev were last publicly photographed together on Aug. 31, holding hands at a farmer's market in Los Angeles.
White and Dobrev originally met briefly in 2012 and reconnected in 2019 at a Tony Robbins workshop. They went public as a couple on Instagram in 2020 and announced their engagement last October. Both have active careers: White has been a prominent figure in snowboarding, skateboarding and surfing and runs business ventures including Snow League and Whitespace; Dobrev is an actor who will next appear in Derrick Borte's cartel thriller Bear Country alongside Aaron Paul and Russell Crowe.
Representatives for White and Dobrev did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Media coverage of the split has included differing accounts about the reasons behind it and the events reported by social media users and witnesses, with sources quoted by different outlets offering contrasting perspectives.
White's remarks to TODAY emphasized his anticipation of attending the 2026 Games as a fan and supporter. He noted that his first Olympics had taken place in Italy, saying the upcoming event "is bringing a lot of memories going back to Italy. Should be fun."