See How Gaon Choi Beat Chloe Kim in Women’s Halfpipe at the Winter Olympics

Coming back from a hard fall during her opening run, Gaon Choi of South Korea pulled off a stunning victory in the women’s halfpipe final, capturing the gold medal and dashing Chloe Kim’s chance to become the first female snowboarder to win three Olympic gold medals.

With just one run left, Choi landed a switchback 900 off her first hit, a technical two-and-a-half-rotation trick taking off and landing on her nondominant foot. She followed it with a cab 720, which she went into with her nondominant foot, then performed two full rotations and landed on her dominant foot. See that trick broken down:

Choi, 17, slammed the halfpipe hard trying to land her cab 1080 during her first run. She launched out of the gates again on her second run, but fell for a second time after her first hit.

But on her third run, Choi combined back-to-back 900s with clean execution and plenty of amplitude throughout. Despite an injured knee from the hard fall on her first run, she scored 90.25 on the third, enough to vault her to the top of the standings.

See an animation of her full gold-medal-winning run:

Kim, who won the silver medal, still made history on Thursday night: She became the first female snowboarder to land a cab double 1080 in an Olympic halfpipe final. She came into the hit with her nondominant foot forward, performed two full flips while spinning, then landed with her dominant foot forward.

Kelly Clark, an Olympic snowboarder who won the halfpipe gold medal at the 2002 Winter Games, said that, in her opinion, Choi’s and Kim’s biggest tricks were comparable in difficulty, and that it can be difficult to determine what judges will reward during competitions.

“The judges wanted to see a very clean run, with high amplitude and great execution,” said Clark, 42. She added that it’s why she thinks the judges awarded Choi the no. 1 spot. Rick Bower, the program director for the U.S. Snowboard Team, agreed, saying that Choi’s “consistent amplitude” helped bump her ahead of Kim.

See a comparison of the tricks in Choi’s gold-medal run with Kim’s two winning runs in 2018 and 2022:

Mitsuki Ono of Japan clinched third place with hard, big and technical hits on her first run, including a frontside 1080 with a tail grab and a switch backside 540.

Choi, who made her Olympic debut at this year’s games, stood on the podium with tears in her eyes as she was awarded the gold medal. Kim, who has been a mentor to Choi, shared a heartfelt hug with her.

Choi’s come-from-behind victory was especially sensational given the severity of her injury coming off that first run. After the event, Choi’s agent, Ryan Runke, told The Times that her coach, Benjamin Wisner, had suggested that Choi consider skipping the second run because she could barely walk.

But she went back out for that second run — and then the winning one.

“She refused to let anyone tell her she was too hurt to ride,” Runke said. “She is very, very tough.”