The expectations placed upon Chloe Kim could not have been any higher entering the PyeongChang Olympics. But the 17-year-old delivered on the biggest stage, earning her first Olympic gold medal in women’s snowboard halfpipe on Tuesday morning in South Korea.
Kim set the bar extremely high on her first run, landing a backside air, frontside 1080, cab 720, frontside 900, McTwist and frontside inverted 720.
That run scored her a 93.75 and gave her a huge lead over the rest of the field.
Over the final two runs, the rest of the field did their best to match Kim, with many of the women going for broke and attempting to land the frontside 1080 — currently one of the most progressive tricks in women’s halfpipe.
A few women successfully landed the trick, but none could match Kim’s score.
By the time her final run came around, the gold medal was secure and Kim was free to take a victory lap. Instead, she attempted to add an exclamation point by landing her most technical sequence of tricks — the back-to-back 1080s.
That combination of a frontside 1080 into a cab 1080 in the middle of her run had bedeviled Kim earlier in the contest. She had attempted it on her second run but fell on the second 1080 attempt.
On her victory lap though, Kim stomped both of her 1080s, then landed the rest of her run. The final score from the judges: 98.25. And with that, Kim was officially the new Olympic champion.
