South Korean denies Chloe Kim a Winter Olympics three-peat with women’s halfpipe gold win
Games debutant Choi Ga-on wanted to quit after crashing on first run on snowboard, but recovered to post highest score on her third go
South Korea celebrated snowboarding sensation Choi Ga-on as a “miracle girl” and history-maker on Friday after soaring to the country’s first Olympic gold in the sport.
The 17-year-old recovered from a horror crash to dethrone the United States’ two-time defending champion Chloe Kim in the halfpipe on Thursday in Italy.
Choi is the first athlete from South Korea to win an Olympic gold medal in snow sports and it was also the nation’s first gold at the 2026 Winter Games.
Multiple South Korean newspapers carried headlines that dubbed Choi the nation’s “miracle girl”.
Local media outlet Financial News said that Choi’s “fierce determination moved even the Olympic gods”.
Kim took silver, while the bronze went to Mitsuki Ono of Japan in the mountain town of Livigno, near the Swiss border. The 17-year-old Choi, making her Olympic debut, looked like she would have to withdraw after she flipped upside down and crash-landed in the first of three runs.