Chloe Kim entered Thursday’s halfpipe final at the 2026 Winter Olympics hoping to make history and become the first snowboarder to win gold in three consecutive Games.
It seemed as if he only needed his first run to finish the job.
The Team USA star absolutely crushed his first run, starting with a backside 720, then a switch backside air and a switch double cork 1080 to get him going. But she didn’t finish from there.
You can see that first run in full here:
That earned him an 88.00 to set the standard after the finalists’ first set of races.
On her second run, Kim started the same way but tried to place a pair of double corks to close out the game, but she couldn’t follow that trick and failed to score. Still, his score of 88.00 topped the standings heading into the final races.
But then came the big twist midway through the third and final round. The young South Korean snowboarder Choi Ga-on, only 17 years old, swept her last race. Despite suffering a bad fall in his first run, Choi nailed his third run, including a trio of 900s, and jumped to first place with a 90.25. For a moment, it looked like he was going to retire due to the fall, but instead, Choi ran a good enough race to finish first.
The penultimate race of the night came from Japan’s Sara Shimizu, who had a beautiful race but only moved up to fourth place with an 84.00.
The stage was Kim’s, and history was at stake. Could he make the back-to-back doubles he missed in his second run?
Kim missed the landing on the first double and was forced to settle for silver. Instead, the gold goes to an athlete she inspired and mentored: Choi. It is the first medal for South Korea in this event and, in fact, it is gold.
Mitsuki Ono of Japan took bronze.
