Snowboarder Choi Gaon claims Olympic gold in women's halfpipe

Choi Gaon of South Korea celebrates on the podium after winning the gold medal in the women's halfpipe snowboarding event at the Winter Olympics at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, Italy, Thursday. Yonhap

MILAN — Choi Gaon captured the women's halfpipe snowboard title at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics on Thursday for South Korea's first gold medal of the competition staging a miraculous comeback after taking a nasty fall that appeared to have dashed her hopes.

Choi, 17, scored 90.25 points in the final held at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, some 140 kilometers north of Milan. She denied Korean American superstar Chloe Kim a historic third straight gold, with Kim taking the silver medal with 88.00 points.

Mitsuki Ono of Japan got the bronze with 85.00 points.

Choi's is the first Olympic gold medal for South Korea in a snow event. The country had two silver medals and one bronze medal away in snowboarding prior to Thursday, including a silver and a bronze at this year's competition.

Choi Gaon in action during the final of the women's halfpipe snowboarding event at the Winter Olympics at Livigno Snow Park in Livigno, Italy, Feb. 12. Yonhap

Choi also became the youngest women's halfpipe gold medalist, breaking Kim's previous record, set at the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Games, by about seven months.

The 12 athletes in the final each took three runs, and the best score of the three counted as their final score. The highest and lowest of the six judges' scores were discarded.

In halfpipe, boarders perform acrobatic spins, flips and board grabs on a 22-foot, U-shaped structure. They are judged on the degree of difficulty, height and execution of their moves.

And Choi appeared to suffer an injury while attempting her second move during her first run.

She opened with a switch backside 900 with a mute grab, taking off from her non-dominant stance and rotating 2 1/2 times with the front hand grabbing the toe edge of the board between the bindings. But then Choi hit the lip of the halfpipe while trying to complete her second move, a caballerial 1080 stalefish, which involves a switch frontside entry, three full turns and a stalefish grab.

Gold medalist Choi Gaon celebrates on the podium after the snowboard women's halfpipe final during the Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games at Livigno Snow Park, in Livigno (Valtellina), Feb. 12. AFP-Yonhap

Choi, who scored just 10.00 points with that run, stayed down on the flat section for a few minutes while being tended to by the medics. Choi got back to her feet and boarded off the pipe under her own power before dropping to the ground once again.

Only five finalists completed all five moves amid windy and snowy conditions.

Prior to Choi's second run, a "DNS (Did Not Start)" sign flashed next to her name on the board. Moments later, though, Choi appeared at the top of the hill, drawing wild cheers from the supportive crowd.

Gaon Choi in action during her third round of Women's Snowboard Halfpipe Final, Feb. 13. Reuters-Yonhap

However, Choi lost her balance and fell trying to land her first move.

Choi's medal prospects seemed bleak as she stood on the hill for the third run. Clearly less than 100 percent physically, Choi went with some conservative moves and successfully executed all of her planned moves. She opened with the same switch backside 900 with a mute grab and finished it off with a frontside 720 with an Indy grab, involving two full spins with the backhand grip of the board between the feet.

Choi was already in tears before her score was announced, and the mood quickly turned to jubilation when her numbers flashed on the board.

Choi was in first place with five boarders to go, and none could match her score -- not even Kim, who was trying to become the first snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals in a row.