It’s understandable if you doubted the smile on her face on Thursday night in Livigno, Italy, after she finished the women’s Olympic half – pipe snowboarding finals with a silver medal. Usually, Kim’s victories at the Olympics are a given. And after she came in first in the qualifying earlier in the week, it seemed that she had overcome the effects of the dislocated left shoulder she suffered back in early January. Winners usually don’t accept second place, right?
But after further consideration, Kim’s happy acceptance of the silver medal makes perfect sense. In fact, this medal might end up meaning more to her than the gold medals she brought home from PyeongChang in 2018 and Beijing four years ago.
“Absolutely,” Kim says. “I mean, a month ago, I wasn’t even sure if I’d be here. Just thinking about it makes me emotional. I really worked hard to get here. So this medal means a great deal.”
After the competition, she walked down a snowy hill at the Livigno Snow Park half – pipe venue, holding hands with her boyfriend, a player of the Cleveland Browns, the NFL’s reigning defensive player of the year. He stood with Kim’s family and friends at the bottom of the half – pipe, taking pictures of Kim in action. “Exciting but terrifying,” Garrett said about watching Kim twist her body in the air on a snowboard.
She has reasons to be happy, both personally and professionally. The new Olympic gold medalist, [name missing] of South Korea, is now the youngest Olympic snowboard gold medalist at 17 years and 101 days. Kim, who was also 17 when she won Olympic gold in PyeongChang, has become a mentor for Choi. If Kim decides to leave snowboarding—“I know I can’t do this forever,” she says—she can leave the sport in good hands.
“She’s like my own. I’ve known her since she was very young, and I’m so proud of her,” Kim says. “It means a lot to me to know that I’ve inspired a whole new generation.”
The night started in the typical Chloe Kim way. Seven out of the 12 finalists fell during their first run in the snowy conditions, which made landing tricks more difficult. But Kim didn’t make such mistakes, and her run was clearly better, even in the snowfall. Her score of 88.00 led the competition.
Each Olympic half – pipe finalist gets three runs, and only the highest score counts. Could anyone beat Kim in the last two runs? It had never happened in the Olympics before.
Kim even held back in her first run. “I’ll admit, I played it safe,” she says. “I didn’t go as big as I did in practice, mainly because I saw all these girls fall, and I thought, let’s just make it to the bottom.”
Going into her second run, Kim still led. She tried to push her limits. “I wanted to try something I’d never done before,” Kim says. “I wanted to make history.” She fell.
Choi had a scary accident in her first run. She stayed in the middle of the half – pipe for a few minutes while getting medical attention but was able to ride to the bottom on her own. Choi thought about dropping out of the event.
Instead, she shocked the Livigno Snow Park by scoring 90.25 on her final run, raising the stakes for the evening. For the first time in the Olympics, Kim was behind. So she had to do well in the final attempt of the evening. “My coach said, you know, you could repeat your first – run performance better, or you can go all out,” Kim says. “I wanted to go all out. That’s what I do.”
She fell again, allowing Choi to win the gold. “The snow really started to come down, and the wall got a bit sticky,” Kim says. “No excuses. I should have noticed when I started and felt it on my first hit. Yeah, I couldn’t pull it off. But it’s okay.”
Kim went straight to Choi to congratulate her. “She took a hard fall, got back up, and won the thing,” Kim says. “That’s awesome.” Choi is not only the youngest Olympic snowboarding champion: she’s also the [description missing], winning the event in 2023 and taking that title from Kim as well.
Kim failed in her attempt to be the first snowboarder to win three consecutive Olympic golds. “I don’t know if there was really pressure on me,” she says. “Every time I enter a competition, people always say, ‘Oh, she can make history here. She can do this. She can do that.’ I’m just here to snowboard, and whatever medal I get, it’s great.”
On Kim’s to – do list after returning to the U.S. is shoulder surgery. “I’m looking forward to it not popping out all the time,” she says. Kim believes the injury cost her the crucial pre – Games training time needed to execute a perfect plan.
She’s not at all disappointed about it. “In my eyes, I’m a winner,” Kim says. “Because I was able to persevere and keep going.”
