Chloe Kim is back atop an Olympic halfpipe—this time with a taped-up shoulder and a shot at history. The 25-year-old, who won gold in 2018 and 2022, is trying to become the first snowboarder ever to threepeat in the event at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games, even though a torn labrum (cartilage lining the shoulder socket) sidelined her for most of the season and kept her from training until about two weeks ago, per NPR. For Kim, who locked in her Olympic spot a year ago, Wednesday's qualifying round is her first competition this winter.
Kim says the heavily braced shoulder has oddly made her riding steadier, and that once she drops in, "my mind goes completely blank" and the injury fades from her thoughts. She's debuting a new run and insists she'll be satisfied if she lands it clean, no matter the result. Still, she's a favorite for gold in a field of two dozen women that includes three other Americans and 17-year-old Gaon Choi of South Korea—one of Kim's top challengers and, in a full-circle twist, a rider who came up the ranks idolizing her.
She easily qualified for the halfpipe final on Wednesday with an "impressive" first run, per Reuters, finishing with a score of 90.25, 2.75 points ahead of the next closest competitor. Though she had some wobbly landings on her second run, when she tried bigger tricks, only the best of the two runs counted. "I've landed all the components of my finals run, I just haven't put them together," she told the AP. "So I'll get to do it on the big day." Americans Bea Kim and Maddie Mastro also qualified. In an unfortunate turn, Chinese rider Liu Jiayu, the 2018 silver medalist, crashed on her second run and was taken away by stretcher.
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