LOS ANGELES — One of Shaun White's young fans almost knocked him out of the X Games.

White, the snowboarding and skateboarding sensation as famous for his long red hair as his many medals, was at his neighborhood skate park in April when a local boy came from nowhere and gave him a deep cut with his board.

"A kid dropped in and put eight stitches in my ankle. I was already skating the ramp and he rolled in on me," said White after a practice session on the Men's Vert ramp, where he'll vie for his second straight gold in the games' signature event on Saturday. "My ankle exploded. There was 'Kill Bill' blood everywhere."

In White's hometown, the skating mecca of Carlsbad, Calif., the move was akin to a young New Yorker beaning Derek Jeter.

"The kid was crying and screaming 'I hurt Shaun!'" White said.

"I couldn't be mad, it was a total accident," he said. "I'm just glad I didn't hit him. I actually jumped over him somehow, Spiderman style, and landed on the top of the deck but his board got me.

"It didn't seem that bad because it was just a cut, but my whole ankle turned into a giant cankle," White said, using the slang word for a chubby ankle that is indistinguishable from the calf. "I couldn't do anything, I had to hobble around for a good three weeks or more."

The accident cut his prep time for the heavy skateboarding season in half, though White is skating sharply. He won the final Dew Tour event coming into the X Games.

His gold medal last year was his first in the summer X Games, and he has won seven snowboarding golds at the Winter X Games.