Iouri Podladtchikov ends competitive snowboarding career

Iouri Podladtchikov, the only man other than Shaun White to win an Olympic halfpipe title in the last four Winter Games, said Sunday that he retired from competition, confirming a report from his native Switzerland.

Podladtchikov, the 2014 Olympic gold medalist known as I-Pod, had few contests since missing the PyeongChang Winter Games after suffering a traumatic brain injury and cerebral hemorrhages in a Winter X Games crash two weeks before the Olympics.

In December 2018, Podladtchikov suffered a concussion and broken nose in a crash at his comeback event in China.

Two months later, he ruptured an Achilles tendon while at the world championships in Park City, requiring surgery and ultimately…