‘Full circle moment’ as Choi, 17, denies Kim historic third gold

It felt like the moment the baton was passed on.

Chloe Kim, the greatest women’s halfpipe snowboarder, and Choi Ga-on, the young protege, standing side by side on the podium.

It was expected to be a procession for American Kim to win a third consecutive Winter Olympic gold, a feat no snowboarder has ever achieved. And yet it was 17-year-old Choi on the top step.

The South Korean had defied a brutal fall in her opening run to score 90.25 points on her final attempt, a total 25-year-old Kim could not better.

It was, as Kim told BBC Sport, a “full circle moment”.

The two had met nine years ago, at a test event in Pyeongchang before the 2018 Games in which Kim, then also aged 17, would announce herself on a global stage with her first Olympic gold.

Realising her potential, Kim and her father helped Choi to travel to the United States to train.

Kim’s father, who is from South Korea, was one of the first to embrace Choi and her emotional team after her Olympic gold was confirmed.

“She’s someone I’ve known since she was little,” said Kim.

Olympic gold marks the realisation of Choi’s potential, a name that has been on the lips of many in the snowboard world for some time but is now catapulted into global consciousness.

In 2023, aged just 14, Choi won X Games superpipe gold, breaking Kim’s record as the youngest rider to win the title.

That same year, she won the first World Cup she entered but was later ruled out of the remainder of that season after fracturing her back.

This Olympic season, however, she underlined her ability by winning every World Cup she entered coming into the Games.

She had managed only sixth in qualification on Wednesday as Kim topped the pile with a score of 90.25 – the exact score Choi would win gold with little more than 24 hours later.

But her final looked to be over on her very first run when she hit the icy lip of the pipe and flipped into its centre, lying motionless for some time.

As heavy snow fell, she eventually brushed herself down and later stunned the onlooking crowd with her spellbinding third run, her coach bursting into tears at the realisation of what Choi had achieved.

“It’s the kind of story you only see in dreams, so I’m incredibly happy,” said Choi.

“During the final, mentally it was so tough. But right now I am the happiest.

“My knees are a bit bad, but I feel like I’m overcoming it all with happiness.”

She later said: “After the first run, I actually cried really hard, thinking maybe I should just quit the Olympics here.

For Kim, the build-up to the Games had been far from ideal.

With just one competition under her belt this season, she dislocated her shoulder and sustained a torn labrum in what she described as the “silliest fall” in training in Switzerland last month.

In Livigno she was competing with her shoulder in a brace but showed little sign of it affecting her.

Watched on by Team USA ‘honorary coach’ Snoop Dogg and snowboarding legend Shaun White in Thursday’s final, the eight-time X Games champion had looked set for gold after her opening run scored 88.00, with few coming close.

But Choi’s last score, met by both cheers and gasps of shock from the onlooking crowd, piled the pressure on Kim, only for a fall – one of many in what was a chaotic final – to ensure she would leave an Olympics with silver for the very first time.

Japan’s Mitsuki Ono took bronze with a score of 85.00.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Kim – who will now have surgery on her shoulder – said: “I’m so proud of myself.

“There was a lot of conversation about me [attempting to win a third gold] but honestly I’m just so glad I was able to get here.

“I think this one might mean more than the others. I think I put it all out there.

“In the past, I would take a cautious approach and ride to win, but these days I’ve just wanted to do what felt good and I feel like I really gave it my all.