LIVIGNO, Italy (AP) — Chloe Kim fell short in her bid to become the first Olympic snowboarder to win three consecutive gold medals, finishing second behind South Korea’s Choi Gaon in the women’s halfpipe on Thursday.
Choi dethroned the two-time defending champion after bouncing back from a nasty crash that silenced the crowd. The 17-year-old let out another collective sigh as she vaulted into the lead on her final run with a score of 90.25.
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Kim had one more chance to get back on top, but the 25-year-old American went away on her final run and settled for silver. Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took the bronze.
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Choi’s chances in the final seemed to be in jeopardy when she crashed into the halfpipe ramp and slid into the middle of the course, where she remained for several minutes. After being attended to by medical staff, she completed the course unassisted.
It wasn’t clear she would even come back for her second run, but she did and got it done. Then came her turn on the halfpipe, which was good for gold.
Choi became the youngest X Games winner in 2023 at age 14. Now the first Olympian is the first non-American woman to win gold at the premier snowboarding event since Australia’s Torah Bright in 2010. Kaitlyn Farrington won for the U.S. at the 2014 Sochi Olympics, and Kim triumphed in PyeongChang and Beijing.
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Kim is not the only one to miss the milestone of gold in three consecutive Winter Olympics at these Games. Czech Ester Ledecka fell short in Alpine snowboarding’s parallel giant slalom, just like Austria’s Anna Gasser in the air. Both were also two-time defending champions.
American snowboarding great Shaun White won three gold medals on the halfpipe, but not consecutively. He won in 2006, 2010 and 2018. He finished fourth in 2014.
White was in the crowd Thursday and winced after Kim fell during her final run. Kim’s friend, Cleveland Browns defensive end Myles Garrett, was also in her cheering section, along with Snoop Dogg. Like many in the crowd, they had gathered to watch one of the biggest names in snowboarding enter Olympic history.
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Instead, they watched Choi wipe away tears as she held up her medal, one step higher on the podium than Kim, the rider who was her idol.
Kim, whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from South Korea, had encouraged Choi throughout her young career. Now she has handed the Olympic title to the teenager she inspired.
Kim hurt her shoulder four weeks ago, disrupting her run-up to the Games. She took part with a brace, which didn’t slow her down as she dominated the field in qualifying.
Another gold medal celebration seemed likely after Kim scored 88 points in her first run, while Choi and most of the other finalists were wiped out.
But Kim couldn’t stay up on any of her remaining runs and her score from the first wasn’t good enough.
AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
