American Chloe Kim wins silver in women's halfpipe, misses Olympic three-peat

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Chloe Kim fell abbreviated successful her bid to go the archetypal Olympic snowboarder to triumph 3 consecutive golden medals, finishing 2nd to Choi Gaon of South Korea successful the women's halfpipe connected Thursday.

Choi dethroned the two-time defending champion aft she bounced backmost from an disfigured clang that had silenced the crowd. The 17-year-old drew different corporate gasp erstwhile she jumped into the pb with a people of 90.25 connected her last run.

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Kim had 1 much changeable to get backmost connected top, but the 25-year-old American wiped retired connected her last tally and settled for silver. Japan's Mitsuki Ono claimed bronze.

Kim, whose parents emigrated to the U.S. from South Korea, had encouraged Choi passim her young career. Now she has handed implicit the Olympic rubric to the teen she inspired.

"It's each astir passing the torch, truthful there's nary 1 other I would person alternatively stood adjacent to connected the podium than her," Kim said. "I'm truthful arrogant of her and I'm truthful excited to spot what she does next."

Choi's chances successful the last looked to beryllium successful jeopardy erstwhile she slammed into the incline of the halfpipe and slid to the mediate of the course, wherever she remained for respective minutes. After being attended to by aesculapian staff, she rode disconnected the people unassisted.

It wasn't wide that she would adjacent travel backmost for her 2nd run, but she did and got it down. Then came her crook down the halfpipe that was bully for gold.

Choi became the youngest X Games victor successful 2023 astatine property 14. Now the first-time Olympian is archetypal non-American pistillate to triumph golden successful snowboarding's premier lawsuit since Torah Bright of Australia successful 2010. Kaitlyn Farrington won for the U.S. successful 2014 astatine the Sochi Olympics, and Kim triumphed successful Pyeongchang and Beijing.

Kim injured her enarthrosis 4 weeks ago, disrupting her lead-in to the Games. She competed wearing a brace, which didn't halt her from dominating the tract successful qualifying.

"Obviously, I'm truly disappointed that I can't snowboard until close earlier the Olympics, which is going to beryllium hard," Kim said past period successful an Instagram post.

But aft Thursday's final, the California autochthonal said she would request country connected her enarthrosis — and that winning an Olympic medal of immoderate colour was a triumph fixed that she was riding hurt.

"I deliberation that determination was a batch of speech happening astir the three-peat," she said. "I was reasoning astir it before, but I deliberation the infinitesimal I injured myself I was like, that doesn't substance anymore. So this feels similar a triumph to maine due to the fact that a period agone it didn't look excessively possible."

Another gold-medal solemnisation had looked apt aft Kim scored 88 points connected her archetypal run, portion Choi and astir of the different finalists wiped out.

But Kim couldn't enactment upright connected either of her remaining runs, and her people from the archetypal wasn't bully enough.

In 2018, Kim became the youngest pistillate snowboarder ever to win an Olympic golden medal. After taking astir 2 years disconnected to absorption connected her studies and intelligence health, she returned to contention and won her second consecutive Olympic gold successful women's halfpipe successful Beijing.

Kim is not unsocial successful letting the milestone of golds successful 3 consecutive Winter Olympics gaffe distant astatine these Games. Czech Ester Ledecka fell abbreviated successful Alpine snowboarding's parallel elephantine slalom, arsenic did Austria's Anna Gasser successful large air. Both were besides two-time defending champions.

American snowboarding large Shaun White won 3 golden medals connected the halfpipe, but not consecutively. He won successful 2006, 2010 and 2018. He finished 4th successful 2014.

White was successful the assemblage Thursday and cringed aft Kim fell connected her last run. Kim's boyfriend, Cleveland Browns antiaircraft extremity Myles Garrett, was besides successful her cheering section, on with Snoop Dogg. Like galore successful the crowd, they had gathered to ticker 1 of the biggest names successful snowboarding spell for Olympic history.

Instead, they watched Choi hitch distant tears arsenic she held up her medal, 1 measurement up connected the podium from the rider who has been her idol.

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