Seventeen-year-old Choi Ga-on denied American great Chloe Kim snowboarding history as she brushed off an early fall to win Winter Olympic halfpipe gold.
Kim had been hoping to become the first snowboarder – male or female – to win three consecutive Olympic gold medals.
But as heavy snow fell in Livigno, South Korean Choi usurped Kim at the top of the standings with 90.25 points from her final run, a score the 25-year-old could not better on her last attempt.
It showed remarkable resilience from Choi, after she had earlier taken a brutal fall in which she hit the icy lip of the pipe and flipped into its centre, lying motionless for some time.
But she eventually brushed herself down and stunned the onlooking crowd with her spellbinding third run, her coach bursting into tears at the realisation of what Choi had achieved.
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.
But despite having her shoulder in a brace, she showed little sign of it affecting her as she scored 90.25 in qualification on Wednesday.
Watched on by Team USA ‘honorary coach’ Snoop Dogg and snowboarding legend Shaun White in Thursday’s final, eight-time X Games champion Kim had looked set for gold after her opening run scored 88.00, with few coming close.
But Choi’s score – met by both cheers and gasps of shock from the onlooking crowd – piled the pressure on Kim, only for a fall 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.
