Two-time Olympic halfpipe gold medalist Shaun White is maturing nicely at the ripe young age of 27.

“With age I’ve learned a lot more about myself and how I get things done,” he said Wednesday during a U.S. Olympic Committee Road to Sochi teleconference call.

White’s the most celebrated action sports figure on the planet between his stellar snowboard and skateboard achievements and his branding.

But for all his globetrotting activities, White’s now focused on training for a third trip to the Olympic games.

He’s ruled the halfpipe and seen his stock fall a tad in slopestyle, but he still has 14 X Games gold medals to his credit.

The plan is this for Sochi—compete in both halfpipe and slopestyle, which is making its debut in the Olympics in 2014.

White tends to be the old man of the pipe, something he doesn’t see himself as being. He remembers riding in a competition and hearing the announcer say he was the oldest competitor that day.

“That was a shocker,” he said.

But as he progresses in life, White continues to learn. He’s more precise in his training. Gone are the days of riding all day.

“I show up and get warmed up, ride my heart out for about two hours and I leave,” he said.

White’s been training of late in Keystone, Colorado as he prepares for upcoming events. He knows his body needs more time to recover. He also welcomes the challenge of riding in both disciplines, of both feeding off each other. Riding pipe helps his slopestyle performance, while doing the jumps, gaps and rails of a slopestyle run pushes him in the pipe.

The red-haired rocker White always rides with a bullseye on this back. He knows it. It’s just the way it is for him—it’s been that way even when he was a competitive threat as a grom.

“I can’t tell you the last time I didn’t feel hunted,” he said.

He’s also aware of young riders and the new tricks they bring with them. He has to perform too, switch things up. He keeps an eye on riders like Iouri Podladtchikov and Mark McMorris.

Even to a guy like White with his piles of trophies, the Olympics are special to him. Walking into a room as an X Games gold medalist, he gets respect. Walk into that same room as an Olympic gold medalist, and the respect spans the globe and generations.

“The Olympics carries history with it back from when I was a little kid,” he said. “Your father’s father watched the Olympics.”

He said the Olympics is such a historic event that carries a lot of weight in the world.

So, White trains. Sochi is at the forefront of a plate heaped with more than just sports.

White’s also in a band called Bad Things. He plays guitar. Training for the upcoming games has put a strain on the group, but he’ll return to his music when it’s time.

Training takes priority, but music is often on his mind.

He calls the band a “fun way to take my mind off things and refresh.”

But for now, he hears the Olympic stage calling.