With the Winter Olympics quickly fading from view marketing experts are now measuring who, exactly, will emerge as the most potent star of Vancouver Games. While the answer depends largely on where you live, in the U.S. there's little doubt that it's snowboarder Shaun White, and the evidence proves it.

White's gold medal performance in Vancouver was a ratings hit for NBC, who beat "American Idol" for the first time since 2004 during the night he competed. His Double McTwist 1260 was watched by more than 30 million viewers, 12 million more than the number who watched "Idol." The spike during White's big night was significant, given that the previous evening "Idol" beat the Olympics by almost 4 million viewers.

White's popularity is nothing new. He skyrocketed to fame after winning gold in the Turin Games of 2006, and has kept the momentum going. While most Winter Olympic sports like skiing and speed skating go into a virtual TV blackout mode during non-Olympic years, the popularity of snowboarding in the U.S. keeps White's name cycling through prime time.

Snowboarding is a pillar of the Winter X Games, which White has been dominating for years. But he also competes as a skateboarder at the Summer X Games, giving him year-round appeal. Ron Semiao, the creator and founder of X Games has an intimate understanding of White's impact on the ratings. "He's the one athlete that we can point to in our coverage where ratings go up when he's competing," he told USA Today. "It's very quantifiable."

Like Tony Hawk before him, White has parlayed his Gen Y celebrity status into his own video game, clothing line, and numerous endorsement deals with companies like American Express, Target, HP computers and Red Bull energy drinks. According to Fast Company magazine writer Chris Wilson, White is the hot ticket for reaching the young male demographic because he's authentic, he understands the value of his brand, and he understands how endorsements work together.

Demand for White's time was going through the roof even before he left for Vancouver. Bob Simon of 60 minutes did a full feature on White before the games. NBC considered him one their biggest marketing draws. Now, post-Games, he's already on the coveted Wheaties cereal box and the cover of Rolling Stone and ESPN magazines. He's the hot item on the talk show circuit, with Leno, Oprah, Regis and Kelly, Steve Colbert and even Rachel Ray getting in on the action.

But it was White's recent trip to Wall Street that speaks volumes. Investors are undoubtedly exploring ways to cash in on his good fortune. White rang the closing bell of the NYSE on February 23. It was a down day for the market, but not for him.

Of course, the political class would like to draft off of his popularity, too. President Obama marveled at White's private training ground in Colorado during a stump speech for Colorado Senator Michael Bennet, while Sarah Palin gushed about White, who she starred with on Jay Leno's return to the "Tonight Show" Tuesday night.

Marketing experts also see White's success and popularity as another indicator of the shifting landscape in sports. Though snowboarding has only been in the Olympics since 1998 it's already one of the most popular of The Games, and there are rumblings of the IOC adding another snowboarding discipline called slopestyle, another hit of the X Games, where boarders take to a large course with rail features and huge jumps.

Al Michaels and Bob Costas summed it up best during their wrap of Olympic's coverage. After admitting their lack of in-depth knowledge on snowboarding, the two legendary sportscasters laughed joked about what the future might hold, Michaels, the famous Miracle On Ice caller, told Costas, "We'll be doing Saturday Night Snowboarding soon enough."


Shaun White doesn't need to explain how much marketing power he has after his most recent round of success. Photo: Polk via Getty Images.

After turning in another round of heart-pounding performances at the Vancouver Olympics, the world's best snowboarders are trying to enjoy what time they have left on the world's biggest stage.

While the athletes' dizzying moves in the halfpipe are something they have command of, navigating the rapidly-evolving media -- where every camera phone is potentially as powerful as a satellite truck, and every Twitter post is fair game -- has proven much more challenging.

Bronze-medalist Scotty Lago is the latest snowboarder to be caught in an embarrassing situation after pictures of him partying Thursday night appeared on the gossip website TMZ on Friday.

That Lago would be partying is hardly surprising or even controversial. But fears that his behavior may have offended the IOC's reverence for their Olympic medals (which were starring in the photos) compelled him to apologize to U.S. Olympic officials on Friday before "voluntarily" packing his bags and heading home.

Several U.S. snowboard stars have been caught in sticky situations during their time in Vancouver, some more hilarious than others. Greg Bretz, 19, won a McNugget eating contest two days before his halfpipe event started. Hannah Teter is all over the headlines for selling her underwear to charity, and has been bogged down defending the decision to media. Even Coach Bud Keene's expletive-laden pep talk to Shaun White was captured on live television on accident by NBC.

Snowboarding and snowboarders have had a tenuous relationship with the Games and the omnipresent media ever since its 1998 Olympic debut in Nagano. Minutes after snowboarding's first gold medal was awarded to Canadian Ross Rebagliati, the IOC marked the milestone by rushing through the door and stripping it away.

Rebagliati tested positive for marijuana. Whoops.

Back then, snowboarders had enemies, too. None bigger than the skiing community, who cited Rebagliati's bad PR as more proof that snowboarders -- the young, unruly and unwashed tribe of rebellious little fringe dwellers -- remained a threat to their very way of life. The battle between mountain tribes was already fracturing the cultural fabric of families, businesses and even entire towns at the time.

To this day, snowboarders are to skiers what bicyclers are to drivers. And, you might say, skiers are to snowboarders what cops are to convicts. But a dtente was eventually achieved thanks to the smell of money.

The ski industry has now made billions of dollars off snowboarders. And snowboarders have pandered to the skier class to gain entrance to their bank accounts, their Games and most notably the hallowed mountain-sides they were once barred from even using.

But after years of bending to other people's rules, snowboarders have definitely found their place. Even this year's U.S. team uniforms speak to this. The clean, conforming Yankee pinstripes of 2006 have been abandoned in favor of flannel tops and big, baggy, tortured denim pants (actually bomb-proof Gore-Tex fabric with high detailed graphics) that pay homage to the sports' rebellious past.

Thanks to Shaun White's popularity, snowboarders are much more willing to let their guard down and be themselves again while under the bright lights. That's a dangerous proposition in a TMZ and Twitter age.

Snowboarders are proud to be here in the Olympics, and they're unquestionably athletic, but it's important to know that most of them couldn't care less about being "athletes."

Bretz (who also was captured in the background of one of the TMZ photos) summed that point up best when he spoke of his pre-Olympic workout routine: "I was planning to go to the gym last year, but it didn't really work out."

A little too much light on our heroes can be a dangerous thing. But we certainly shouldn't be surprised that some snowboarder got captured acting silly on a night of celebration. We should, however, be saddened that he had to flee his Olympic moment simply because he was TMZ'd.

Scotty Lago and Shaun White in the right kind of light. Photo: Dennis via Getty Images

Our favorite Frend from Seabrook takes home the bronze medal and gets up at the crack of dawn, rather, didn't sleep and went straight to The Today Show. Check out what Scotty had to say to the crew of The Today Show about his medal and take in everyone's epic outfits...

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Wednesday night was another step forward for Olympic snowboarding. The men's halfpipe competition elevated the sport to another level thanks to Shaun White. But White wasn't alone when it came to impressing. Here's five things that stood out to me:

1. The ultimate time stamp: By landing the Double McTwist 1260 on the final move of his final run in Vancouver, White put a nice mark on the level of performance that halfpipe snowboarding has hit at the 2010 Games. He didn't have to do it. But I'm glad he did because it's nice when a new benchmark is set on the biggest, brightest stage there is. When you're getting 5 feet farther out of the pipe than the rest of the field, it's impossible not to stand out above the rest. Shaun proved Wednesday that he remains in his own league.

2. Two out of three isn't bad: Coming into this season, the U.S. had a decent shot at sweeping in Vancouver, but those chances were hurt when Kevin Pearce and Danny Davis went down to injuries last month. Both were huge favorites to make the team. That the U.S. managed to take two of the three spots on the podium without them is a huge accomplishment, and I was happy that it was Scotty Lago, a close friend of Pearce and Davis, who ended up there with White.

3. The big hustle: Halfpipe riding is a lot like knowing how to work a pool hall. You really don't want to let the cat out of the bag while you're trying to lure somebody into a trap. In practice earlier this week guys were holding back -- not just to stay healthy -- but to keep any last minute secrets under wraps. But Wednesday the level of riding went through the roof -- much higher than I expected. It was night and day from practice, so I guess you can say they had me fooled.

4. The pond is growing: Kazuhiro "Kazu" Kokubo finished in 8th place, but his effort and performance was medal worthy. He put on a fantastic show for the crowd with his chicken-wing McTwist. Unfortunately, he fell on his last move during both final runs that were otherwise perfect. Meanwhile, Peetu Piiroinen of Finland proved he's one of the most stylish and dynamic riders out there. But what really surprised me was the young Chinese riders. None of them made the final but they did show they're serious about snowboarding, and there's no telling what that means for the Winter Olympics of 2014. There's a lot of snow in China, and I hear they're recruiting kids into snowboarding from gymnastics, ala Louie Vito.

5. This must be the front row: There were a lot of people spending a lot of time stressing on the condition of the halfpipe coming into Wednesday. The amount of care and work that went into maintaining conditions at Cypress is a ringing endorsement of just how far snowboarding has come in its 12 years as an Olympic sport. I was there in Nagano in 1998, and there wasn't a lot of concern when our pipe was melting in the pouring rain. To see snowboarding be center stage under the bright lights of prime time during the world's biggest sporting event is something I thought never possible. But guys like Shaun White take their sports to new heights. Luckily, there's no sign of him slowing down.

Headlines the world over are ripping Lindsey Jacobellis to shreds this morning after another loss in snowboardcross. Fair or not, one has to think all this negative attention would be leading to her death by a thousand cuts.

But one would be wrong.

Let's review for a second: Jacobellis arrives at the Turin Olympics in 2006 as a favorite to win the exciting new sport of snowboardcross. She proceeds to dominate the competition and grabs a hefty lead in the final when self-imposed disaster strikes.

With the finish line in view -- the gold medal in her hand -- she elects to do a little showboating off the final jump by trying a method grab and takes a tumble. As she's climbing to her feet she's passed, yet she salvages a shiny silver medal to show her grandkids.

OK. Enough history. Now the pop quiz. Had Jacobellis not fallen so foolishly in 2006 do you think we'd even know who she is today? Wait. Let me answer that question with a question. Do you remember who passed her and won the gold? Me neither. But I get paid to cover this stuff. At least you have an excuse.

Mine is this: Let's face facts. We love our losers in the Olympics. The agony of defeat is much more agonizing when one has to wait four more years just to have a shot at correcting the error. Waiting sucks. Time is worse than gravity. We don't have the technology to beat it yet. The Olympics are one of our greatest reminders of this...and that's why we watch.

Of course wins are great. But life's most powerful lessons involve pain. And we prefer other people endure that pain for us. Another reason to love the Games.

But lose just the right way in the Olympics and it can be pretty profitable. Visa, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes and Dunkin Donuts have been lining up to throw money at Jacobellis in the buildup to the Vancouver Games.

Compare that to, say, I don't know, Seth Wescott, who made the very unprofitable decision to cross the finish line first during his 2006 run in Turin. Man, how dumb is that guy? He just won again the other day. He even became the first snowboarder to win back-to-back gold medals. Which means give it another day or two and he'll disappear.

But Jacobellis? Nah, we're stuck with her for at least four more years. Because like I said, in the Olympics, the biggest losers win.

Photo: Squire via Getty Images