Winter Olympics: Defending champion Chloe Kim wins gold in snowboard halfpipe

Even before Kim slid for the final run, it was clear that she is the Olympic champion as none of her competitors could outdo the points she earned in her opening run

American snowboarder Chloe Kim has successfully defended her Olympic title in the women’s halfpipe final on Thursday. The last rider to drop into the halfpipe, she earned an unbeatable score of 94 points in her opening run.

She easily edged out other competitors including her Spanish rival Queralt Castellet, who took the silver medal, while Japan’s Sena Tomita won the bronze medal.

Each of the 12 snowboarders in the final gets three runs in the halfpipe, with their ranking determined by the best single score out of those runs.

It meant that even before Kim slid on her final run, it was already clear that she would be the Olympic champion as none of her competitors had been able to outdo her opener.

Kim, who at 17 became the youngest woman ever to win Olympic gold in snowboarding at the Pyeongchang Games in 2018, with this victory has joined fellow American Shaun White as the only snowboarder to have successfully defended Olympic titles in the halfpipe.

White earned the first of his three Olympic golds in 2006 at the age of 16, and did it again in 2010. As the defending champion from the Pyeongchang Games, he is expected to repeat the feat again on Friday.

A Southern California native, Kim first began snowboarding at the age of four at the southern California resort of Mountain High and then started competing at the age of six as a member of Team Mountain High.

In a 2018  interview with CNN, she shared that her father gave up his job to help her pursue her dreams. “My dad gave up so much. He came with so little and he sacrificed everything for me to help me pursue this dream of mine."

Already a star, the 21-year-old has also made an appearance in Maroon’s 5 2018 song “Girls Like You” and on the MTV show “Ridiculousness”.

She has previously spoken about her struggles with mental health after rising to national stardom at such a young age, and says she suffered depression after the 2018 Games. She took a break from the sport and studied anthropology at Princeton.

“I was struggling with my mental health and I needed help,” Kim toldTime. “Speaking to a professional once per week has changed my life and the way I see things, it’s brought a lot of peace to me, I want everybody to have that same experience as I had.”