LIVIGNO, Italy — Choi Ga-on of South Korea denied American Chloe Kim a historic three-peat in the women’s halfpipe snowboard at the Winter Olympics on Thursday, staging a remarkable comeback after a frightening crash nearly knocked her out of the contest.
Kim ended the night-time event with a silver, and bronze went to Mitsuki Ono of Japan in the mountain town of Livigno.
The 17-year-old Choi, making her Olympic debut, looked like she would have to withdraw after she flipped upside down and landed hard in the first of three runs.
She sat on the ground for several minutes as medical staff attended to her before riding down on her own. In the second round, she fluffed a landing and fell backwards.
Choi shook the disappointment off, however, delivering complex jumps and clean landings in her third attempt to post a stunning score of 90.25, lifting her above Kim’s leading 88. Only the best score from the three runs counted.
“It’s the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I’m incredibly happy it happened today,” Choi said.
Kim, recovering from a shoulder injury, had a final chance to grab gold but fell backwards on a landing as steady snow fell. Choi began crying when she realized Kim’s mistake guaranteed her victory.
The halfpipe features riders sliding across a 22-foot-tall, U-shaped ramp and performing acrobatic maneuvers in the air. Kim took halfpipe gold in Pyeongchang in 2018 and at Beijing 2022.
No snowboarder – not even men’s great Shaun White – has been able to win three straight Olympic golds. White, who was in the crowd on Thursday, claimed three but they were in 2006, 2010 and 2018. He is now retired.
Kim smiled and laughed at the bottom of the halfpipe as she stood with the other medallists. She grinned and bowed on the podium and clapped when the gold medal was draped around Choi’s neck.
Kim, 25, was competing with her shoulder held in place by a brace after her accident in January forced her to stay off her board for two weeks.
“I haven’t been able to practice as much as I would’ve liked,” Kim said. “Just proud of myself for landing a run and walking away with a medal.”
American Maddie Mastro failed to complete her signature tricks on all three runs, stumbling on the landing each time.
“The first hit got the best of me,” she said. “It happens, and it happened to me tonight. I’m proud that I kept trying and kept showing up.”
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
