Shaun White announced that he won't be competing in the slopestyle at the Sochi Winter Olympics this year and instead will only remain in the halfpipe.

"After much deliberation with my team, I have made the decision to focus solely on trying to bring home the third straight gold medal in halfpipe for Team USA," White said in a statement to Today.

"The difficult decision to forego slopestyle is not one I take lightly, as I know how much effort everyone has put into holding the slopestyle event for the first time in Olympic history, a history I had planned on being a part of."

The 27-year-old snowboarding pro came to the decision after he hurt his left wrist on Tuesday while practicing on the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park course in Russia.

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"With the practice runs I have taken, even after course modifications and watching fellow athletes get hurt, the potential risk of injury is a bit too much for me to gamble my other Olympics goals on," White said.

Alpine skier Lindsey Vonn, who recently pulled out of Sochi because of injuries, said she understood White's decision not to compete.

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"I see that he definitely wants to be prepared for the halfpipe. If that's where he thinks that he can win the gold medal, that's a smart choice," she also told Today. "But obviously he's going to be disappointed to not be in the first slopestyle event that was ever in the Olympics."

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