A 17-year-old first-time Olympian from South Korea de-thorned the iconic Chloe Kim in the women’s halfpipe on Thursday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.
Choi Gaon jumped ahead of Kim, the two-time defending champion, in the final runs of the Thursday event — foiling her attempt at making history as the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals.
Instead, Choi broke Kim’s record as the youngest women’s snowboarding gold medalist. Kim set the record at the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics with her gold medal win at 17-years-old, and then again won gold at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
“This feels surreal. I can’t believe my first Olympic medal is gold,” Choi said.
Choi’s gold medal win came after she was nearly knocked out of the competition by a scary fall on her first run. However, she rushed to compete and ended her third run in first place with a score of 90.25.
“After I took my first half I thought, ‘Do I need to give up?’” Choi said. “I cried, clenched my teeth, and started walking and felt the energy came back into my legs. I thought I can keep trying and I could get back into these Games.”
Kim, who dislocated her shoulder while training in early January, earned a silver medal with a score of 88.00.
During Thursday’s event, Kim fell about halfway through her final run — the latest of several snowboarding falls to make headlines at the 2026 Olympics.
Choi wiped away tears as she held up her gold medal on the Olympic podium, just one step up from her idol.
Catch a re-air of the finals for the halfpipe on primetime Thursday starting at 9 p.m. CT.
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